Climate Justice Organizations’ Rally Cry is Echoing
Movement groups have spent years sending out the same rallying cry: “Fund the frontlines. Fund a Just Transition away from the fossil fuel-based economy. Listen to us. Support us.” Funders have seen countless funder briefings, closed door meetings, toxic tours, reports, zines, and conferences. This message from the ground, however, has remained clear. The climate crisis is dire, climate justice groups’ work is critical, and they need these resources.
And now? Our communities’ safety is at dire risk on a national scale not seen in recent memory. Movement leaders routinely have their personal information exposed and their lives threatened. Climate Change denialism is on the rise in the US. Wealthy people at top levels of government are slashing critical programs and laying off hundreds of staff responsible for the climate science needed to inform what frontline communities are already experiencing. Meanwhile, human induced climate change is accelerating, and the consequences are upending our lives and the stability of the ecosystems we depend on to survive.
Philanthropy, however, has not met this moment or answered this call to action with the resources necessary for change.
The ClimateWorks Foundation (CWF) has noted this in their own reports about the sector. Overall climate funding has increased, between $9.3 billion to $15.8 billion in 2023, an increase of around 20 percent from 2022 according to their 2024 Funding Trends report. Yet only $175 million, or between 1.1 and 1.8 percent, of those dollars go to “other climate mitigation strategies,” an overly broad category that includes climate justice and just transition giving along with several other categories. For context, “carbon dioxide removal,” a technology-centric scheme criticized by movement actors as a counter-productive false solution, alone received $60 million in the same period.
Climate funding remains top-down too, even as it grows. Just 3 percent of environmental grantees received half of all philanthropic dollars for the climate in 2021, according to the Environmental Grantmakers Association. Too often, a concentration of funding goes to large, already well-resourced organizations.
This is not the funding strategy of a philanthropic sector committed to justice and transformation. For that to change, the biggest actors in climate funding must take responsibility and lead the charge.
An Echo Chamber of Influence
ClimateWorks Foundation positions itself as the “global platform for philanthropy” on climate solutions. As one of the largest climate intermediaries they link larger institutional foundations with grantees and claim to “enable the climate philanthropy community to operate effectively for greater collective impact.” Given their mission, leadership role, and access to wealth and expertise, CWF could be one of the
