A new philanthropic initiative by the World Economic Forum (WEF) aims to nudge corporate foundations towards climate philanthropy by giving at least $1 billion by 2030.  

It is part of a wider push to bring together public, private and philanthropic sectors to invest in the climate. 

Giving to Amplify Earth Action, or GAEA, spearheaded by WEF, announced a number of new commitments and pledges at WEF’s annual conference in Davos, Switzerland.  

A new Corporate Philanthropy Challenge for People and Planet project aims to bring together “smart, catalytic capital towards climate and nature interventions”. 

A WEF spokesperson told international development publication Devex that the challenge will hopefully “inspire more corporate foundations to step up in climate and nature philanthropy”. 

It comes off the back of what has been described as a “paradigm shift” in philanthropy, by Badr Jafar, chair of the COP28 Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum. 

“Governments simply do not have the available capital or capacity to make the climate transition on their own. To move from the billions we have to the trillions we need, we require urgent, unprecedented, delivery-focused public, business and philanthropic collaboration”, Jafr said at COP28 in the UAE last December.  

The World Economic Forum’s Giving to Amplify Earth Action (GAEA) initiative, a collaboration with Philanthropy Asia Alliance (PAA) and the ClimateWorks Foundation, has also warned that a $3 trillion annual funding gap for climate solutions must be met with a tri-sector philanthropic-public-private partnership. 

Less than 2 per cent of annual global philanthropic giving goes towards preventing climate change. And even less finds its way in regions where it is needed the most, particularly in Asia.  

Shafi Musaddique is news editor at Alliance magazine.