Alex Hong’s Post

[psst! Here's how to to act as a responsible steward to your constituents and fund the #justtransition: stop funding the #climatedisaster. * #governments: end #fossilfuel subsidies, and reallocate that public money to #climatejustice in keeping with your oath of office; * #pensionplans, #endowments, and other major investors: shake off the extortion racket of quarterly reporting + undisclosed #externalities, and reorient portfolios to investments that actually serve your mission and fulfill your #fiduciaryduty You don't even have to figure it out. There are many qualified, credentialed, and experienced people and organizations readily available to help you #dotherightthing.]

Earlier today, the Ocean Resilience and Climate Alliance (ORCA) was announced at the Ocean Pavilion at COP28 UAE with a commitment of more than $250 million to date. This is a big moment for the ocean community, and Builders Vision is proud to join this effort alongside some truly incredible leaders in the ocean-climate space. This coalition was formed because we all believe in what oceans can do for the health of our environment and our society, but the reality is, we simply aren’t doing enough to protect them. I’m hopeful that ORCA can change that. This is a real opportunity to provide much-needed funding for new ocean research and innovations that can help solve some of the most pressing climate challenges. And it’s a powerful partnership between global philanthropy, local nonprofit organizations, and frontline coastal communities. I’m grateful for the leadership of the Oceankind team and my colleague Peter Bryant on this effort. I’m also proud to join ORCA alongside institutions like the Ballmer Group, Bloomberg Philanthropies, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Oak Foundation, The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Vere Initiatives. As I look forward to the work ahead, I hope others will continue to join us. You can learn more about ORCA here: https://lnkd.in/g9f7dGEX #cop28 #climateaction #blueeconomy #oceanconservation #sustainability #climatechange

Blue Economy is advancing

Our Executive Director, Antoinette (Nonette) Royo, reflects on the recent AVPN Conference ⬇: "Securing community land as a climate solution strategy is starting to resonate. At the AVPN’s Climate Pathfinders event, I heard investors talking about the need to partner with local people to build bottom-up solutions. Investing in development must involve investment in place-based adaptation and resilience. Even if it doesn’t make money immediately, catalytic private finance, and government policy enablers need to come forward and align. And I thought; ‘wow’ – imagine if we counted the contributions of the world’s Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and local communities – including their efforts to protect watersheds, restore and expand forests, and share intergenerational stories that protect keystone species and heirloom seeds." "I’m convinced that we can do this together. It’ll take patience and effort. There will be missteps along the way. But changes are happening. Already hopes are high for next year’s UN Climate Summit COP30 in Brazil, where many Indigenous people from the Amazon and beyond will press for more inclusion and robust protection of Indigenous rights and consent. As we prepare for these crucial moments, let us not forget to bridge the gap between the towers of modernity and the canopies of tradition. Because it is precisely at the intersection of these two worlds where hope emerges and our path toward a more just and sustainable future begins." https://lnkd.in/ddvy-MP7 Thank you Alliance magazine!

Partnership: How do you define it? What makes it successful? Proud to have been involved in the Catalysing Climate Action in Asia: Unlocking the Power of Philanthropic-Public-Private Partnerships report. This collaboration between Philanthropy Asia Alliance, ClimateWorks Foundation and the World Economic Forum features insights from more than 50 organisations as well as real-life case studies in Asia — with a spotlight on how philanthropic-public-private partnerships (PPPPs) can help tackle climate and nature challenges with solutions. This with a view to building even stronger and more successful partnerships at scale in Asia and beyond. So what can make PPPPs successful? 🌿Alignment of systems thinking strategy & values: Active and early discussions and common understanding of the shared end goals 🌿 Win-Win-Win outcomes: Achieving co-benefits across a shared agenda 🌿 Innovative financing: Structuring collaboration with mutually beneficial financial structures 🌿 People-centric capacity & capability building: building the community of talent and strong stakeholder engagement Read the full report: https://lnkd.in/eU7aVYpu #worldeconomicforum #philanthropy #PhilanthropyAsiaAlliance #ClimateWorks #cop28

🌍 Redefining Climate Strategy: The Crucial Role of Philanthropic-Public-Private Partnerships in Funding Global Sustainability. A must-read for anyone committed to sustainable solutions and corporate responsibility. #ClimateChange #Sustainability #PublicPrivatePartnership #COP28

RESET philanthropy. Women first in the GCC. 2 Percent given to climate and bio diversity challenges and causes by those that are giving types, what ever their motivation to give is … shoddy. All philanthropists are facing as all of us with a little or a lot, the loss of our natural world. There needs to be a much deeper appreciation and actions/ outcomes to change this don’t you think. I feel women philanthropists can drive this forward. Many in the GCC have cash to support through their own position in family business. In ruling families, and they are an extremely economically powerful force. Of nature. For nature. Www.tlcharmony.com

Being part of the #Local2030 Coalition special event at the United Nations in New York was a great pleasure. In a panel debate I spoke about how private sector investments can be leveraged to make an impact at the local level, and how the private sector can work with other sectors to deliver on the green transition. And the SDG’s in general.   Public-private collaborations – both financial and other forms – are fundamental in much of Realdania’s philanthropic work, as well as the way that the @Local2030 Coalition addresses today’s challenges and supports the SDGs on a global and a local level, in cities and beyond.   It was really encouraging to discuss some of the instruments that can promote transformation with the other participants, and I’m fueled up on hope, inspiration and new knowledge for the meetings and work to come in the Danish 2030-panelet. I presented three concrete experiences that can be copied and reused by others: 1.    The establishment of a 2030 network and a 2030 panel, where engaged members of parliament who are concerned with the SDGs collaborate with and are inspired by 20-30 active people in a multi-stakeholder panel. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/deNx9JCS   2.    Inspired by the 2030 panel, a number of stakeholders have created Our Goals. Our Goals is a Danish baseline for the SDGs. The Danish indicators were created in the Our Goals project, which put the SDGs in a Danish context. The project is funded by Realdania and a number of other Danish philanthropic foundations and associations and is run and annually maintained by Statistics Denmark - International Consulting in collaboration with the 2030 Panel. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dsSATxt4     3.    And the third example was about climate action plans. Realdania has been a strategic contributor to the international climate organisation c40 since 2013. After the Paris Agreement, C40 Cities developed Climate Action Plans that all 97 member cities had to create. This has been done. In parallel, Realdania, together with KL, the regions, CONCITO and now all 98 Danish municipalities, has implemented DK2020, where the Danish municipalities follow the same model as the international cities. Right now, 96 of the 98 Danish municipalities have a C40-approved climate action plan and the last two will follow suit very soon. It's world history - and not at all impossible to copy. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dSiab-7W   We know that you can't copy a Disney movie or a photograph taken by a professional photographer. But it's stupid not to copy good ideas and successful experiments, such as the 3 above. So it's time to get started.   Thank you to the organisers, moderators and other panellists.   #Local2030 #SDG Michal Mlynár Qu Dongyu Stefanos Fotiou Amson Sibanda Leah Namugerwa Jaime de Aguinaga Garcia Emilia Saiz Shipra Narang Suri Haoliang Xu Lisa Ann Kurbiel

Why have faith-based organizations such a major role to play at #COP28? This was most eloquently stated by Johan Rockström, the Director of PIK - Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Co-Chair of the Earth Commission of the Global Commons Alliance, during a webinar I had the privilege to moderate. As highlighted by Johan, "there's a very tight troika between #science, #faith and Mother Earth." "It is a deep moral imperative: what right do we have, who are in charge in this generation, to hand over to our children, a less livable planet, than the home when we ourselves were born. So in my mind, science connects with faith: destabilizing planet Earth means that we are threatening creation, we're not only breaching physical boundaries, we are actually trespassing moral boundaries, and these moral boundaries are set up by the faith systems in the world. These are the human belief systems that function as beacons of light and social guardians in our lives and in our relationship with planet Earth, with #nature and with fellow earthlings. So this is something that has to do with science and faith. ... It has also something to do with #power because the big religions in the world have following of over six billion people, this is the vast majority of world population ... This places such a large responsibility on the shoulders of faith leaders. ... It places a special responsibility on science and on faith to be able to provide the stories, the narratives, and the encouragement of accelerating the path in the right direction. ... I do not see a way of succeeding in this transition without a helping hand from faith and belief systems. So I think this is really, really welcome to have a #FaithPavilion at the COP and I hope really that this Pavilion will be an attractor and heard across all the zones in Dubai." For more wisdom and heartfelt appeals, check out the entire webinar hosted by FaithInvest and Laudato Si' Movement, with contributions full of grace by Sister Alessandra Smerilli of the #Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; Dr Lorna Gold of FaithInvest; Huda Jaffer of SELCO Foundation; and Andrew Steer of the Bezos Earth Fund. 🙏🏽🌍🌳

Another way to tackle our ongoing climate crisis is by identifying and supporting highly skilled leaders with cutting-edge approaches that can transform climate innovation. Climate Breakthrough, a global philanthropy organization and Foundation Climate Action grantee, is actively pursuing this approach. Their mission is to select and fund novel, high-ambition, high-gain initiatives that can rapidly reduce emissions on a large scale in a timeframe that matters. Last fall, two sustainability and clean energy professionals, Gita Syahrani and Jane Fleming Kleeb, were selected as the 2023 Climate Breakthrough Awardees, one of the largest environmental grants for individuals. The award provides each recipient with a $3 million grant — coupled with capacity-building services, communications and legal support, and learning resources — to aid in the development of game-changing initiatives to shift culture, policy, and economic development globally. As of last year, over 60 percent of these awards were won by women or women-led teams, with more than 70 percent focused on work in the Global South. Senior Program Officer Joel Clement shares, “The urgency of the climate crisis demands that we experiment with big, bold ideas. Climate Breakthrough has invented a new way to supercharge strong leaders and their game-changing ideas, and this fits right into The Lemelson Foundation’s history of supporting the innovators and big thinkers.” Discover more of Climate Breakthrough’s work here: https://lnkd.in/gpYGx8sS And learn more about our Climate Initiative here: https://lnkd.in/enK9Pm-S #climateaction #climateemergency #climatecrisis #philanthropyinaction