ABSTRACT
In September 2020, ClimateWorks Global Intelligence published a landmark report on the current state of climate philanthropy. This chapter seeks to showcase the larger story by shedding a different light on climate philanthropy, one that presents climate philanthropy as more than just a depersonalized and neutral source of funding for climate action, but more importantly as a full-blown and intrinsically political stakeholder in the international climate debate. To do this, it highlights climate philanthropy’s core features. It shows how the most active climate funders adhere to a shared “strategic” and “impact orientated” theory of change which involves applying business principles and values to all levels of philanthropic activity. Having described climate philanthropy’s core features, the chapter then shows how these practices simultaneously reveal and help legitimize a particular green capitalist worldview centered on the idea that innovation and deregulated markets are key to solving the climate crisis.
