Climate change threatens the very ability of our planet to sustain life as changing temperatures wipe out habitats, change the chemistry of the oceans and threaten vulnerable communities. Only through coordinated partnership with businesses, governments and civil society do we have an opportunity to halt climate change now before the changes to our natural environment are irreversible. We believe that as a funder, we are most effective when we work to change the systems that hinder sustainable growth, be they political, financial or market-based. To achieve this goal we support organisations that work in innovative ways to influence decision makers. Current and past grantees include:
Center for Clean Air Policy www.ccap.org
Since 1985, the Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP) has been a recognized world leader in climate and air quality policy and is the only independent, nonprofit think tank working exclusively on those issues at the local, U.S. national and international levels. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., CCAP helps policy-makers around the world develop, promote and implement innovative, market-based solutions to major climate, air quality and energy problems that balance both environmental and economic interests.
The Climate Group www.theclimategroup.org
The Climate Group is an independent, non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing business and government leadership on climate change. Based in the UK, the USA and Australia, they operate internationally. The Climate Group’s mission is to put the world on track for a low carbon economy by rapidly expanding the uptake of best practice on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Their work is driven by the vision of a world where reducing greenhouse gas emissions is widely regarded as the norm. The Zennström Philanthropies has provided a core funding grant to help The Climate Group achieve their goals.
Climate Interactive www.climateinteractive.org
Climate Interactive is building a community that creates, shares, and uses credible models, accessible simulations, and related media in order to improve the way leaders and citizens around the world think about the climate. Their purpose is to get these sims and insights into the world as accessible products so they can be tweaked, enhanced, translated, distributed and used to power change around the world.
E3G www.e3g.org
E3G is an independent not-for-profit organisation, established in 2004, that works in the public interest to accelerate the global transition to sustainable development. They build coalitions to achieve carefully defined outcomes, chosen for their capacity to leverage change. E3G founders had been working together and developing their shared thinking for several years before the organisation was constituted in 2004. The core of E3G’s climate approach is to reframe the climate change debate around how to deliver the scale and pace of investment needed to preserve climate security, and to animate new coalitions and propositions to help achieve this outcome.
Empresas Pelo Clima www.fgv.br/ces/epc
The EPC works through capacity building activities of business managers and business support in developing their corporate policies and strategies for GHG management. Another program goal is to provide policy recommendations for a low-carbon intensity in Brazil.
Endeavor www.endeavor.org
Endeavor is leading the global movement to catalyze long-term economic growth by selecting, mentoring and accelerating the best high-impact entrepreneurs around the world. Zennström Philanthropies has provided a grant to help Endeavor expand its support to the green companies in its portfolio.
Environmental Defense Fund www.edf.org
Environmental Defense Fund is a leading national non-profit organisation representing more than 500,000 members. Since 1967, they have linked science, economics and law to create innovative, equitable and cost-effective solutions to society’s most urgent environmental problems. Zennström Philanthropies has given a grant to the Environmental Defense Fund to support their international climate change programme.
Friends of the Earth UK www.foe.co.uk
Friends of the Earth is an environmental campaigning charity, part of an extraordinary global network with partners in 77 countries. One of its major priorities is to champion efforts to tackle climate change through research, lobbying and creating public pressure to motivate decision-makers to act. It has worked to secure ground-breaking legislation in the UK to reduce climate-changing emissions, and is rolling out this campaign to its sister groups in Europe to inspire global action.
GLOBE International www.globeinternational.org
GLOBE is the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment founded in 1989. GLOBE facilitates high level negotiated policy positions from leading legislators from across the G8+5 parliaments and from regional dialogues which are informed by business leaders and key international experts. It’s objective is to support ambitious political leadership on issues of climate and energy security, land-use change and ecosystems and economic and population growth.
Global Witness www.globalwitness.org
Global Witness exposes the corrupt exploitation of natural resources and international trade systems, to drive campaigns that end impunity, resource-linked conflict, and human rights and environmental abuses. Global Witness is largely responsible for natural resources occupying the prominent role in the international agenda that they currently do.
Oceana www.oceana.org
Without the oceans, global warming would be far worse than it already is. Unfortunately, the oceans are being overwhelmed by the massive amounts of carbon dioxide they are absorbing. As the oceans become “full” of carbon dioxide, the rate at which they can continue to absorb carbon dioxide slows, resulting in more carbon dioxide remaining in the atmosphere, affecting the climate. Recently, it was found that the Southern Ocean, the most important “carbon sink” of all the oceans, has greatly slowed its uptake of carbon dioxide because of climate change. The absorption of heat and carbon dioxide by the oceans is currently slowing the effects of global warming; however, the oceans are becoming overburdened and may not be able to perform this function for much longer. The impacts of absorbing such huge amounts of carbon dioxide and heat include ocean acidification, sea level rise, disrupted marine food webs, depleted ecosystems and more. Oceana campaigns to stop climate change through legislative advocacy, source control, public education and awareness and ecosystem protection.
OECD, Directorate for Science Technology and Innovation www.oecd.org/sti
The Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry leads the OECD’s work on knowledge-based sources of economic and social growth and, more specifically, on the translation of science, technology and knowledge into innovation.
The P8 Project www.cpi.cam.ac.uk/programmes/energy_and_climate_change/p8_group.aspx
The P8 initiative involves working with twelve of the leading global pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, including representatives from Europe, Asia, Australasia and North America to address climate change. The P8 programme is coordinated by The University of Cambridge Programme for Industry (CPI). The CPI promotes social, environmental and economic awareness amongst leaders globally to both the benefit of the latter and society more broadly. The P8 initiative has been held under the auspices of The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change organisation.
The Royal Society’s Science Policy Centre royalsociety.org
The Royal Society has a long track record of providing scientific advice to policy makers. Its earliest report, on the state of Britain’s forests, was published in 1664. In the run-up to its 350th Anniversary in 2010, the Royal Society has established a Science Policy Centre in order to strengthen the independent voice of science in UK, European and international policy. They look to champion the contribution that science and innovation can make to economic prosperity, quality of life and environmental sustainability.
World Economic Forum’s Critical Mass Initiative www.weforum.org
The Critical Mass Initiative was created in early 2010. It is a unique platform convened by the World Economic Forum, International Finance Corporation and United NationsFoundation, in association with the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change and the Investor Network on Climate Risk. PwC was the Project Adviser to the World Economic Forum for this initiative. The initiative convened a community of institutional investors, asset managers, development banks, donor agencies, government officials, infrastructure project developers and climate finance experts, and enabled them to co-design a first wave of public-private financing solutions.