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Blog Archives: November 2021

GFANZ fails to deliver at COP26

November 30, 2021
Michael Northrup, Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Note from Confluence President & CEO Dana Lanza: Confluence friends, please read this piece from Environmental Finance by Michael Northrop, Program Director, Sustainable Development at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund: GFANZ fails to deliver at COP26. Northrop concludes that the Global Finance Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) organized by Mark Carney and launched at COP26 lacks specifics on how banks and investors will align their lending and investments to a 1.5 degree Celsius future. Given the urgent need, described by the International ...

COP26 was a Cop-Out. We Must Now Focus on Nature-Based Solutions

November 29, 2021
Julia Jackson, Grounded
COP has proven to be ineffective, considering we’re currently on track to reach 2.7 degrees Celsius by the end of the century under current policies. Lips are moving – and have been moving since 2015 – but the atmosphere isn’t taking note of who’s talking. What we need now is real action, and it was sorely lacking at COP26. While more than 140 countries put forward net zero goals, there is little confidence those ambitions will be achieved. Currently, only 7 countries are on track to stay well below 1.5 degrees and those countries are mostly ...

Bringing Mindfulness to Climate Solutions at COP26 & Beyond

November 22, 2021
Confluence Philanthropy
Trauma is at the root of our inaction in the face of Climate Change. Trauma symptoms of numbness, apathy, hyper-activation and polarization dramatically slow down our ability to respond adequately. Our lack of relationship to the crisis is part of the crisis. The Pocket Project aims to restore our collective ability to relate sensitively and compassionately thus opening up to an increased flow of information and possibility. During COP26, Confluence’s President & CEO, Dana Lanza and Partner & Chairperson of Veris Wealth Partners, Patricia ...

Climate Initiatives and Philanthropic Strategies in India

November 15, 2021
Shilpa Patel, ClimateWorks Foundation
As part of Confluence’s series of climate-themed virtual convenings in and around COP26, I had the great pleasure to talk with Moutushi Sengupta of MacArthur Foundation, Uday Khemka of the SUN Group, and Pratap Raju of New Energy Nexus and Climate Collective Foundation on their strategies to address climate change in India and advance India’s climate ambition.[1] Here are some highlights. Context India plays a critical role in the direction of our climate future. It is the third largest emitter in absolute terms, and although its ...

The Decisive Decade of Delivery: A Call to Action to Confluence Members

November 08, 2021
Dana Lanza, Confluence Philanthropy
In parallel with COP 26 in Glasgow this week, Confluence announces a call to action to our Members planning to achieve Net Zero. We are here to support you during the coming year as you shape your commitments, in all shapes and sizes, no matter how modest or ambitious, to reach Net Zero. ************************************ If the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that the age-old environmental mantra, ‘Think Globally, Act Locally,’ has enormous impact. Individual actions, no matter how seemingly small, such as wearing a ...

COP 26: Call to Action

November 02, 2021
Loren Blackford, Sierra Club Foundation
After college, and a year interning with the Quaker UN Office, I joined the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service just before the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. There, I helped evaluate NGO negotiations, which went a lot better than the governmental ones across town. NGOs from the Global South made a powerful case to the Northern “Big Greens” that, without focusing on people and their social and economic well-being, climate and conservation efforts would fail. By the time I attended the Paris Climate Summit as a Sierra Club Board member 23 (!) ...

Boldly Meeting This Moment: Pursuing a Net Zero Endowment for People and the Planet

November 01, 2021
Elizabeth McGeveran and Dan Thiede, McKnight Foundation
When Hurricane Ida ripped through southern Louisiana, the communities hit hardest by the storm were left without power—no air conditioning, fans, refrigerators, lights, or life-saving equipment. New Orleans solar company PosiGen stepped in to deploy 12 solar-powered stations with their partners at disaster supply sites, community centers, fire stations, and churches in the area to support local residents. If it’s up to forward-thinking PosiGen, their many low-income solar customers won’t be in the dark when the next climate disaster ...

1.5°C: The most important number in the world

November 01, 2021
Tim Dunn, Terra Alpha Investments
Some numbers matter more than others. At this moment, 1.5°C might be the most important number in the world. Our ability to focus on that number today, and in the decade ahead, will have a dramatic and lasting impact on every living thing on the planet (e.g. people, plants, crops, trees, animals). In turn, those impacts will affect all aspects of our society, the economy, and yes, our investment portfolios. What is the significance of 1.5°C? It is the consensus amongst climate scientists that we must strive to limit our planet’s ...

The Water is Warm and It’s Getting Warmer: A Call to Action

November 01, 2021
Ivan Frishberg, Amalgamated Foundation
Net Zero commitments are now hitting the mainstream, and the breakneck pace of socializing and making these commitments is unheralded. The speed of adoption for this framework is particularly notable for its ambition and just how darned hard it will be to succeed. Allow me to be brutally honest as the context for why every organization should follow this same path with what might seem like reckless abandon. The history of US and global failures on climate is well established. In the US, we can look at the Clean Power Plan, Waxman-Markey, ...