Fourteen foundations including the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Arcadia have signed a commitment to play their part in tackling climate change.
The Funder Commitment on Climate Change was launched at the Association of Charitable Foundations’ annual conference today. All the signatories have pledged to consider how their investments, operations and funding programmes can contribute to a “fair and lasting transition to a post-carbon society”.
They have also committed to reporting publicly on their progress, and are calling on other funders to join them.
In a statement, the charities said: “The Funder Commitment recognises that the growing climate emergency is a serious risk to the pursuit of charitable goals, and that funders have a responsibility to ensure they are managing and distributing resources in a way that recognises and responds to this threat.
“The signatories include not just environmental funders, but also those focused on local communities, the arts, and poverty.”
‘Defining challenge of our generation’
Speaking about the pledge, Moira Sinclair, chief executive of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, said: “Increasingly, we feel we need to respond more to climate change, especially given our grantmaking focus on young people, and the degree to which they see this as the defining challenge of their generation.
“We are already taking action in some areas, but in others we know that we have a long way to go, so we welcome the framework and stretch target that being a signatory to the Funder Commitment on Climate Change will create.
“Staff and trustee engagement will help as we shape our response, and we look forward to reporting on our progress next year.”
Matt Leach, chief executive of the Local Trust, added: “As a place-based funder, we know the potential communities hold to overcome some of the biggest challenges of our time, of which climate change is indisputably one.
“By signing this commitment we’re recognising the part we must play in being a responsible funder, but also the role that communities can play in creating a more environmentally sustainable future and how we can support them to do so.”
The full list of signatories is:
- Arcadia
- Barrow Cadbury Trust
- Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
- Frederick Mulder Foundation
- Friends Provident Foundation
- Gower St, JA Clark Trust
- Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust
- Lankelly Chase Foundation
- Local Trust
- Paul Hamlyn Foundation
- Solberga Foundation
- Thirty Percy
- Zennström Philanthropies
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