When climate action comes from the heart

Résumé détaillé

The gloom at this year’s climate summit was lifted by the increasing generosity of private donors to help cut carbon emissions and reduce harm from ...

The gloom at this year’s climate summit was lifted by the increasing generosity of private donors to help cut carbon emissions and reduce harm from extreme weather.

A degree of pessimism has pervaded this month’s COP31 global climate summit, hosted by Turkey. Britain’s prime minister, for example, told assembled world leaders Thursday that a consensus on “science and climate has gone” and that the worst prediction for a warming planet is nigh. The United States, meanwhile, has withdrawn from many international climate initiatives.

Yet among nongovernment climate campaigners who fund private solutions to help catalyze global efforts, such gloom was not in the room.

Just before the U.N.-sponsored gathering, one group of philanthropists announced more than $480 million to curb methane and other super pollutants. A coalition of charities committed $88 million to saving forests, while another pledged more than $375 million to address climate-related health challenges.

“The story of climate progress – and there is real progress to tell – is not being written by governments,” wrote Janet Fleischman and Jyotsna Uppal, both narrative strategists, in Climate Home News.

One unusual example of climate giving, and the first of its kind globally, is a $72 million gift from the Netherlands-based Ikea Foundation to help a handful of nations cut food loss and waste – which accounts for an estimated 8% to 10% of annual greenhouse gas emissions.

Reducing food loss is “probably one of the biggest climate mitigation opportunities that we are not advancing enough,” said Anne Bordier, food initiatives director at the World Resources Institute. A 2024 United Nations report stated that food waste by households worldwide was equal to more than 1 billion meals per day.

Private spending for climate action, while potentially more innovative and agile than government efforts, is perhaps not adequate to meet the immense task of cutting pollution and adapting to extreme weather.

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