The COP27 Presidency has partnered with the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, and the Climate Emergency Collaboration Group (CECG) to convene a Philanthropy Roundtable during the Egypt-International Cooperation Forum (Egypt-ICF).
The Roundtable gathered high-level attendees from a host of impactful philanthropies such as Gates Foundation, Bezos Earth Fund, African Climate Foundation, Sawiris Foundation, Community Jameel and Bloomberg Philanthropies among others.
It also provided an opportunity for potential philanthropic contributions with transformational power in key COP27 Presidency initiatives and expanded the dialogue around the role of philanthropies in mobilizing climate finance and adaptation ambitions.
According to Egypt Foreign Minister and COP27 President-designate, Sameh Shoukry, The important role of Philanthropic actors is consistently growing, and there is a need to consolidate and develop partnerships with philanthropies and harness it towards mobilizing more resources and help unlock greater climate finance ambition, especially the areas that suffer from major deficits such as adaptation.
“Climate change is at the intersection of several global challenges that require the role of philanthropies in climate solutions. The COP27 Philanthropy Roundtable has brought together representatives from leading organizations in the region and beyond to build aligned strategies for scaling of strategic investments in Africa and beyond and provide a space for funder-to-funder networking and new partnerships.
“While some governments have stepped up their action and others will hopefully follow suit, the fact remains that the global effort against climate change will benefit from the complementary contributions from and collaboration with all non-party stakeholders across the board. Philanthropies can play a key role in elevating and supporting progress towards COP27 outcomes, and thus the COP27 Presidency is keen to facilitate greater coordination and deeper dialogue with the global philanthropic community,” he further stated.
Recent research has shown that climate and adjacent environmental areas such as air, water and land conservation receive only 2% of the US$730 billion global philanthropic grant funding compared with major categories such as health, public safety, community and economic development, and education. A recent estimate suggests that a 10x increase in philanthropic giving to addressing climate change could deliver an extra USD$131 billion a year towards helping save lives and livelihoods.
Participants also discussed five COP27 Presidency’s initiatives which included the Food & Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation Initiative (FAST); the Global Waste Initiative 50 by 2050; the African Facility for Just & Equitable Energy Transitions; the Decent Life Initiative for a Climate Resilient Africa; and the Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook on Just Financing.