Abstract
Chapter 2 looks at the origins of philanthropic involvement in the climate debate. It shows how liberal US foundations have historically dominated the field of climate philanthropy. In the 1980s and 1990s, through their grantmaking and convening activities, they helped to popularize the climate question in the USA and to lay the basis for the international climate regime. In the early years, foundation involvement in the climate debate was facilitated by the fact that it was less about policy action than about crafting an international framework for policy action (UNFCCC, IPCC). Once the framework was in place, foundations were left with the (daunting) task of getting countries—and in particular the USA—to commit to ambitious and binding action.
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Notes
- 1.
As we will see in Chap. 5, this was an important part of the IPPI strategy.
- 2.
Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC.
- 3.
http://www.centre-francais-fondations.org/cercles-themes/themes-1/climat/cop-21/cop-21-en (accessed 5 April 2016).
- 4.
Within the UNFCCC system, observer organizations include representatives of United Nations secretariat units and bodies (UNDP, UNEP, UNCTAD), specialized agencies (such as GEF, WMO/UNEP IPCC) and intergovernmental (IGOs) such as the OECD, the International Energy Agency (IEA). The vast majority of observer organizations are NGOs (there are over 1880 NGOs and 100 IGOs). Foundations fall into this observer sub-category. However, and interestingly, they are not recognized—and, to my knowledge, have never requested—to be recognized as a distinct MG.
- 5.
The delegation included the CGBD programme manager, three foundation representatives—Energy Foundation, Global GreenGrants Fund—and a foundation consultant on climate and energy issues.
- 6.
http://climatepolicyinitiative.org/event/cop21-side-event-growth-the-driver-of-climate-change-action/ (accessed 7 February 2016).
- 7.
The RBF, for instance, helped to launch CAN International’s Eco newsletter through funding in 1993.
- 8.
As Arnove and Pinede point out, “funds available to conservative think tanks were disproportionately greater than those for progressive think tanks” (Arnove and Pinede 2007, 394).
- 9.
In 1986 it was estimated that over 50 % of the American public had never heard about the greenhouse effect (Block 2008).
- 10.
Whose members included, among others, American Electric Power, Boeing, BP America, Enron, Intercontinental Energy Corporation, Lockheed, 3M, Toyota, The Sun Company…
- 11.
As we will see in the following chapters, many within this small and close-knit community would continue to be active in 2015 during the Paris COP.
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Morena, E. (2016). Philanthropic Foundations and the International Climate Regime. In: The Price of Climate Action. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42484-2_2
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