This slogan has been used universally and can be applied to a whole range of situations, as we saw it with the pandemic. Governments, NGOs and foundations from the world took emergency action to tackle the COVID Crisis. But there is another rising emergency – the environmental crisis. Foundations have a large potential of actions in this domain and here are a few actions and recent studies on that topic:

Firstly, Stefan Schurig, Secretary General of the Foundations Platform F20, has made a call for action addressed to philanthropic actors in the last article published by Dafne “Addressing the climate challenge: Think globally – act locally ». 2021 is the “European year” in terms of climate actions, as this year is holding three major events related to climate : The G7, the G20 and the COP 26.

Stefan Schurig is then calling to take three major actions this year, which can make a difference:

1. Taking a stand on climate and sustainable development within political forums such as the G20.
2. Encouraging peers and partners to follow this direction
3. Using their influence by investing only in future-proof sectors.

Secondly, Active Philanthropy is launching two projects starting in the coming months:

1. A co-funding platform, which will give the possibility for funders to engage in climate philanthropy with high-impact projects.
2. An online learning course on climate change and philanthropy for foundations and individual funders.

Thirdly, Active Philanthropy initiated a guide “Funding the Future – How the climate crisis intersects with your giving” (also available in French : “Financer l’avenir Comment la crise climatique rejaillit-elle sur vos financements ?”), which is a useful resource for foundations, regardless their sector.

This guide aims to links the different problematics together and presents five key areas, called “climate intersections” (the meeting points between social justice and global warming impacts), which are related to the climate crisis impacts and would benefits from climate action : just and democratic societies, public health, disadvantaged groups, education and nature conservation. It finally gives 10 good practices of funding helping tackle the climate crisis.

Finally, on the local scale, an interesting study about Carbon Neutrality by 2050 in Geneva have been published last year and recently highlighted by the article of the Tribune de Genève : L’invité – Des scénarios pour la neutralité carbone, which call for funding local projects and companies in order to reach the net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and help traditional business in their environmental transition.

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