Foundations call for cooperation, some new pledges at COP27

As communities around the globe press their case at the COP27 conference in Egypt that climate damage is forcing migration and causing suffering as never before, philanthropic foundations pooled their resources to donate more than $2 billion to support climate adaptation projects. Overall, though the amount of charitable funding directed toward climate related projects remains small.

Global climate talks were scheduled to end negotiations Friday, though many expect they will go beyond the deadline to reach a deal.

On COP27’s opening day last week, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced $1.4 billion in support for agricultural projects, across Africa and South Asia that it said will help small farmers adapt to climate change. The commitment was $434 million larger than initially planned through 2025, funding projects including research to increase the productivity of seeds and livestock farming and a partnership that would provide weather information to farmers in East Africa by text message.

The Gates Foundation pledged another $7 billion over four years to go to its work on agriculture, health and gender equality in Africa while Bill Gates was visiting Kenya.

Gates warned Thursday, at an event with students at the University of Nairobi, that aid or investments from governments to finance climate adaptation and mitigation was limited and may be reduced because of the war in Ukraine and the cost of energy.

“A lot of these health and climate solutions are going to have to be very frugal because even though I’m the biggest proponent and meeting with rich people and politicians all the time that they should do even more — we’re not going to see some gigantic uptick in those amounts,” Gates said, adding, “Really innovation and spending what aid resources there are, also increasing domestic resources, will be very necessary.”

Philanthropic giving to support projects that try to prevent the worst impacts of climate change represented less than 2% of all estimated philanthropic donations in 2021, though it grew faster than other categories, according to a report by ClimateWorks Foundation.

In addition to making financial pledges, philanthropic foundations facilitated conversations at pavilions and side events, said Alice Amorim, project coordinator, Global Philanthropy for Climate Movement. Her organization seeks to engage philanthropies to be active on climate issues and to help them find entry points, with…