There is a heightened sense of urgency leading up to COP26, the 2021 installment of the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, which will be held in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12. This year’s conference comes in the wake of a devastating report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was released during a summer marked by extreme weather events around the world—from more intense hurricanes in the Caribbean to wildfires in California and extreme floods in Germany.

To place these developments into context, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Vice President Heather Grady outlines the state of environment philanthropy in the lead-up to COP26 and describes what it will take to meet the urgency of the climate crisis.

What is the state of climate change-related philanthropy heading into COP26?
The picture is generally a good one. The amount of philanthropic funds going to climate change is growing fast. There is more strategic thinking, with a growing recognition that to address the climate crisis, we need fundamental changes in our economic systems and more public policies that drive deep decarbonization of business. Accordingly, there is a push for more systemic, integrated approaches to climate philanthropy that require serious engagement with the public sector, the private sector, and civil society movements.

Philanthropy also increasingly recognizes the close linkages between climate and nature solutions. To address the climate crisis without protecting nature ignores the symbiotic relationship between the climate and what we call the global commons—biodiversity, the ocean, freshwater, and land. And partial approaches like carbon offsets can actually do harm to nature and people if they don’t include a more holistic understanding of the context in which investments are made. Promoting regenerative agriculture and deep decarbonization through emissions reductions are examples of complementary approaches to support.

Read the full article about climate philanthropy by Caroline Suozzi at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.