The Current - Canadian philanthropists donate $405 million to fight climate change

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

Nine wealthy Canadian families and foundations have committed a total of $405 million over the next ten years to help with the climate change fight. The donors say that addressing the complex issue of climate change is multifaceted, and their funding is just the ‘one domino that gets things going.’ 

In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news, so I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with Season 3 of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy.

On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is The Current Podcast. There is no time to lose. On climate finance, the world must pay up or humanity will pay the price. Climate finance is not charity. It's an investment. Climate action is not optional. It's an imperative. Both are indispensable to a livable world for all humanity

and a prosperous future for every nation on Earth. At the COP29 Climate Action Summit last week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres made an urgent plea to rich countries and rich individuals to address climate change with their pocketbooks. This is a story of avoidable injustice. The rich cause the problem, the poor pay the highest price. Oxfam finds the richest billionaires emit more carbon in an hour and a half than the average person does in a lifetime.

That same Oxfam report found that the top 1% of wealthiest people in the world are responsible for the same amount of carbon emissions as the least wealthy 66%. Now, a group of wealthy Canadians is trying to shift that at least a bit. Nine families and foundations will contribute $405 million over the next decade to speed up the shift to a low-carbon economy. It is the biggest philanthropic contribution to climate change and climate action ever in this country. Bruce Lurie is president of the Ivy Foundation. It's committed $100 million to this initiative. He's in our Montreal studio. And Sylvie Trottier is a board member of the Trottier Family Foundation, which is donating $150 million. And she's in Cambridge, Ontario. Good morning to

you both. Good morning, Matt. Good morning. Sylvia, of all of the causes needing support, why did you decide to put $150 million of your family's money into climate action? Well, I think to us, there's no other issue which is as pressing as the climate crisis. You know, this is an issue that is a threat multiplier that affects every aspect of our lives, really. So our communities, our economies, our ecosystems, there's nothing that isn't touched by the climate crisis. And I would say, irrespective of any issue area that is close to your heart, whether it's, you know, children, whether it's health outcomes, whether it's inequality, climate is going to be amplifying those worsening outcomes. And that's why it's so essential for philanthropy to step up and to take bold action and play a role in catalyzing additional change and lots of amazing solutions.

This is a big change because when you take a look at climate philanthropy in this country, something like 0.9% of charitable giving in Canada goes to climate philanthropy. Why do you think that's so low? I would say it is shockingly low when you think about it being sort of this generational issue that touches everything. But climate is complex. Like I said, it touches a lot of different areas of our lives, really every part. And there's not any one entity that's going to solve it on its own. So a lot of philanthropists and funders, you know, it's easier, I would say, to fund, let's say, you know, a hospital or a university or something that's much more tangible, or perhaps a food bank where you feel, okay,

I'm having a direct impact here. Climate is, you know, more complex than that. But our message today and part of our goal in making this announcement is to kind of explain and show that if we do this in collaboration with others, in community, with lots of experts, and figuring out what are the best solutions, we really can have tangible, kind of effective change that's good for everyone and really gets the future that we want. Bruce, Laura, you helped create this initiative. What are you hoping to achieve with this? Yeah, well, precisely what Sylvie has just said, our goal is to mobilize more money, certainly, not just from wealthy Canadians, but from Canadians working all across the country, as well as governments. This is, as Sylvie said,

it's a complex issue, but I think we're getting to the point now, and what makes us quite confident is the solutions to climate change are largely understood. Implementing them is quite a bit more difficult, but we know that we have to stop burning fossil fuel. That's the main problem. And right now in Canada, we, for example, install more heat pumps than gas furnaces, which is great. We're gradually starting to see increase in electric vehicles. We're seeing some big changes in industry. We've decarbonized our electricity system almost entirely. So we're confident that the solutions are there. And I would say, partly in answer to your question of why we see such a low amount of philanthropy going

into climate change is I think a lot of people simply didn't think the solutions existed. So we're hoping by combining this, you know, unprecedented commitment in Canada to direct solutions that people can see on the ground, that we'll really build a bigger pot of money to solve the problem. What specifically, I mean, $100 million is an eye-watering sum. What specifically would you want that that's coming from the Ivy Foundation to go to? Yeah, you know, so it's a whole range of things. And, you know, again, as Sylvie said, this is a complex issue. It affects all parts of the economy. Really, when you think about it, you know, climate change isn't a traditional environmental issue.

We're talking about the complete retooling of the global economy. And as I said, it's from one based on fossil fuel to electricity. So we're helping, for example, support the industry that needs to get things done. So how do you do skills development for heat pump or HVAC installers? How do you get First Nations communities to participate in this by having equity ownership in major projects that will be electrifying the economy? We do a lot of work with labor organizations on the role that labor will play. We do technical work, working with people that really understand in detail, like, you know, what are, say, the issues in exploring the future of hydrogen, which may or may not be

a significant part of the solution. So it's really a huge range of things. And I think, Matt, that's the benefit of this announcement. It's to show people that there are all sorts of things that you can be doing from working with doctors to working with community groups to basically trying to help businesses decarbonize. Sylvie, what goes through your mind when you hear those numbers about the impact that the most wealthy in this world are having on climate? The Secretary General of the United Nations said the rich own this problem. the United Nations said, the rich own this problem. And I dare say that he's talking about people who can, through their family foundations,

would have you afford to give hundreds of millions of dollars. When you hear that, what goes through your mind? I mean, I think that is one of the kind of the big cruxes of the climate crisis. And I think that is true for countries as well, right? That's been understood for a long time, is that the wealthiest countries are the ones who have contributed the greatest part of the problem. And unfortunately, the least wealthy countries are going to be bearing the brunt of the effects. And that's true on an individual level as well. So that's something that I've grappled with personally as well. And I would say, you know, philanthropists, we do have a role to play in supporting climate action.

We really, you know, we're not necessarily, we can't solve it on our own. There's lots of different actors that need to come to the table. Like Bruce was saying, there's amazing solutions that are already there. there but what funders can do is to be that one domino that gets things going and that scales up those solutions to the level we need them to to play can i just go back to something that you just said which is that you grapple with this on your own i mean how do you grapple with this what i mean are there things that you do in your life to not offset but to to reckon with that how what does that mean when you say that you grapple with it? I would say that part of it is taking action through philanthropy.

And philanthropy goes beyond just money, although obviously that's a huge part of it. But there is an expression that I've heard from other groups where we use treasure, ties, talent, and time. So it's about bringing our whole selves to the table and using our voice like we're doing with today's announcements to encourage our peers to also come up and step up in a bold, ambitious way that matches the scale and the urgency of the issue. It means bringing our talent and our knowledge to the table as well. So I think it's about bringing our whole selves, and it's imperative really that we do so.

And it can be something that is incredibly fulfilling because we can have a major impact. And that's really why we're calling on other sort of philanthropists across Canada to join us and to do this all together because we need everybody at the table. Bruce, part of the people who need to be at the table are political actors as well. How do you think donations like this, but the intention and the attention that they get will shape political decisions? How do you hope that that happens? And really, at the end of the day, that's where we've been stuck on climate change. You know,

we've had, we're at COP 29 and still not a whole lot has come out of those COP processes. And that is the political process globally to solve this problem. So our focus really has been working directly with, as I said, with communities, with businesses, but at the end of the day, with governments, and that's all governments, federal government, provincial governments, municipal governments, they have a huge role to play. And of course, politicians in those governments have a huge role to play. So I think the more that we can demonstrate to political leaders that this really is not just being framed as a problem and a crisis, but this will create millions of jobs in communities across our country, and it'll attract billions of dollars in investment. And if you just look at Ontario, for example, it's been

remarkable to me to see the Doug Ford government embracing electrification, embracing electric vehicles, embracing the manufacturing of batteries. And that's because that's the business that Ontario is largely in, manufacturing automobiles and sending to the United States. So we need to make sure that we're ahead of the curve, and that's what's going to produce good jobs for people in Canada and attract billions of dollars of investment as investments in oil go down. In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news.

So I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with season three of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy. On Drugs is available now

wherever you get your podcasts. Let me just slide another voice into our conversation. Basav Sen is the Climate Policy Director for the Institute for Policy Studies. He's been listening from Washington, D.C. to our conversation. Basav, good morning to you.

Yes, thank you for having me on your show. How important is this sort of philanthropic contribution when we're talking about the larger-than-life, existential fight against climate change? Absolutely. Philanthropy needs to contribute and do its part because it is clearly not sufficient for government or the private sector to shoulder all of the burden for the kinds of investments we need to see to address the climate crisis. And especially

the civil society sector, the non-profit sector needs philanthropic funding in order to function. And as we have seen from country after country over the last several decades, from country after country over the last several decades. It is grassroots social movements. It is civil society that has driven a lot of the needed transformation that has already occurred. And it is, again, civil society that's on the front lines of the resistance to the harmful systems which are still in place. How effective have these sorts of large donations, philanthropic donations, been in the past in shifting the needle on climate change, do you think? This is a more thorny question because to date, philanthropic contributions have sometimes not helped. And let me explain why.

It all depends on where philanthropic contributions go, which particular sectors and which particular organizations. And there has broadly been a trend of philanthropy contributing too much to already well-funded organizations, which are often not at the grassroots. They are not representative of the communities who are most impacted by the climate crisis, but rather they are big establishment NGOs. And by continuing to fund these already well-funded actors, large sectors of philanthropy are perpetuating the inequalities that exist within civil society because not all civil society organizations are equally the most cutting edge and

the most effective in terms of coming up with solutions. And that's only to be expected because it's the people who are closest to the problem who are closest to the problem who are closest to the solutions. Is there a danger that, and this is a concern broadly around philanthropy, that when private individuals or foundations give money, that it in some ways allows governments off the hook? I'd be less concerned about that.

What I would be more concerned about is does it give them disproportionate power to set the agenda? And does that in fact perpetuate the causes of the climate crisis? Because if you think about it, we have known about climate change in scientific terms for decades now. And we are still far from a solution. And that's because of the institutional power, the political clout of big polluting industry. In other words, wealthy institutions and wealthy individuals are resisting a change to the status quo because they want to preserve their privileges. And we can see a similar problem conceivably occur in the world of philanthropy as well if wealthy individuals use their economic cloud to steer solutions in a direction

that is preferable to them rather than one that is in the best interest of humanity. What then do you do I mean is what's the way forward to compel the wealthy to do more to pay more to reduce climate change with the broader goals as you said, of all of humanity rather than their own individual goals? What's the tool that you would apply? The solution is twofold. Part of it is, of course, appealing to the goodwill of individual people to get them to steer their donations in what I would argue is more productive directions, including a lot more funding for under-resourced grassroots organizations. But at the same time, there is a bigger role for redistributive policy on the part of government. more and using those additional revenues for government programs that provide the needed

resources for under-resourced communities to be able to undertake the transformations they need to address climate catastrophe. Is there a word, just before I let you go, is there a word of advice that you would offer the Canadian philanthropic agencies, the foundations that, and the individuals that are giving this large sum of money, $405 million or so? Is there a word of advice that you would give them? The one broad piece of advice I would give people is to actually engage in deep consultation with, for example, First Nations communities who are impacted by tar sands mining and by, you know, pipelines and you know, pipelines and transportation of oil by rail and, you know, all of the other attendant harmful impacts of the fossil fuel industry in Canada. And also to talk to urban environmental justice communities, you know, low-income communities in Canadian cities who are also

dealing with impacts such as extreme heat, which is unusual for Canada. But, you know, these days you have heat waves in Canada, and they're also dealing with wildfire smoke, etc. And so actually engage with these communities, find out what they need, find out what solutions they are already working on and fund them. Basav Sen, we'll leave it there. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Basav Sen is the Climate Policy Director for the Institute for Policy Studies. He's in Washington, D.C. Still with us, Bruce Lurie, President of the Ivy Foundation, which has committed $100 million to the fight for Policy Studies. He's in Washington, D.C. Still with us, Bruce Laurie, president of the Ivy Foundation, which has committed $100 million to the fight against climate change. Sylvie Trottier, who is a board member

with the Trottier Family Foundation, donating $150 million. Sylvie, what do you make of that? And this goes back to, in some ways, the conversation that we were having earlier about how just 0.9% of climate giving in Canada goes to fighting the climate crisis. If it's a less tangible thing,

what about compelling the wealthy to give through a wealth tax? I mean, it's funny to bring that up to me because it's something that I also do personally is advocate for more taxing on the wealthy. And I'm a member of an organization called Patriotic Millionaires. So I really wholeheartedly agree with all of the points that Basav brought up. But the way that I think about it is this is a simplistic breakdown. it is, you know, this is a simplistic breakdown. It's sort of like a three-point plan when I speak to other funders or philanthropists is to say, you know, give more and give better to philanthropy, to other, to an existential threat that affects all of us and that if we succeed in addressing,

it's going to make all of our lives better. And also invest, invest your funds in a way that is going to help accelerate a transition to a cleaner, more just healthier, greener future. That would be point two. And then point three would be to also look, try to use your voice and your role in trying to address the more systemic inequities that have made climate such a major crisis and have brought a lot of other kind of issues through inequality um but really today's announcement is really the first point of that three-point plan is to like give more and that's our message to other philanthropists and other wealthy families is to say that we do have, I would say, a responsibility to play a role, but we can also really be effective. And so a lot of foundations kind of have that perfectionist

mindset. We want to figure everything out. We want to make sure we can have measurable impact. But the riskiest thing here is really to do nothing, to be like, oh, somebody else will do this, or I'm not quite sure where to get started. That's the, you know, why we're announcing today is to say, get going, they can reach out to us, we can support them, like all the points that Abassav raised about doing this through deep engagement, really getting to know the issues, speaking with the folks who are most affected. This is something that we've been doing for the past decade. And we're really now just basically doubling and tripling down on that and wanting to accelerate that action because the window of time, you know, is shortening. Climate, I've been working in this space for a couple of decades, seems sort of far off and distant. But I have a nine-year-old daughter who will be 34 in 2050

when, if we want to reach a 1.5 degree scenario, we should have zero emissions. She's going to be younger than I am now. So it's really not far. We have kind of a few years to act. It's urgent, but there's also hope. We can also really help steer and do something about this. So that's really our call to action. Bruce, we're just about out of time. Just very briefly, part of it, Sylvie talks about the earth horizon. There's also a political timeline here as well. You have a new administration coming into the United States. Donald Trump has talked about drill, baby, drill. How does that put a fire under an initiative like this? Yeah, I mean, that's certainly what's on everyone's

mind. I think right now working on these issues globally, the reality is the United States is the largest oil producer in the world. And even under Biden, accelerated their oil production massively. Of course, almost two thirds or more of Canada's oil goes to the United States to meet their demand. So I mean, we do have an issue in terms of the major countries that are massive oil producers, which is why our focus really is how do we build the other side of the economy, the future clean economy or the new economy that we call it, which is an economy that's going to be based on batteries and electric vehicles and heat pumps and all the things that I was just talking about.

So, I'm quite optimistic about all of that. I think the way the issue was framed, that you basically try to attack people that work in pipelines or the oil industry and consult with progressive urban elites hasn't worked very well. I think that's partly why we have Trump in power. So our approach really is to work much more broadly with workers and communities across the country to really understand those issues that will help us transition effectively. We'll be watching. This is a really interesting conversation.

Glad to have you both as part of it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Bruce Lurie is president of the Ivy Foundation. Sylvie Troche is a board member of the Troche Family Foundation. For more CBC Podcasts, Foundation. Sylvie Troche is a board member of the Troche Family Foundation.