Image Description: Kat Cadungog presenting at The Youth Climate Justice Fund launch event in New York, with funky slides.
As I delved into the complexities of climate finance and philanthropy, I was struck by the pressing questions surrounding how movements, corporations, and foundations perceive and engage with climate finance. It became evident to me that we need a paradigm shift in our perspective. Climate philanthropy shouldn’t just be an “ethical side hustle” but a profound moral obligation.
Throughout New York Climate Week, it was evident that traditional finance and philanthropy is not going to be enough to meaningfully respond to the climate crisis. We are in a pivotal moment, where “business as usual” will not solve the systemic injustices that have driven the climate crisis. Many people see funding work in the intersection of justice and climate, as an “ethical side hustle” but we need to have a paradigm shift in the way we think about philanthropy so we recognize that financially supporting movements is a moral obligation more than an economical decision.
In addition, we often place the obligation of funding climate justice issues on philanthropy but it is worthwhile to note that in the US (there’s not a lot of data in Canada on these numbers), $400 billion dollars sit in philanthropy, while $65 trillion dollars sit in US capital markets. To put this in perspective, philanthropy only accounts for 5% of the funding in the “world of finance.” It’s clear to me now that while philanthropy has its place, it alone cannot address the vast financial needs of our world. We must reimagine our systems with justice and equity at the forefront.
I learned this in my favourite event of New York Climate Week called “Our Money and Justice, the Roots of Climate Action” hosted in partnership with Taproot Earth, Kataly Foundation, Solutions Project, and Capital J Collective. In this particular event I felt challenged to rethink my relationship with money and how we, as a movement, can reframe our narratives around money.
Image Description: “Our Money and Justice, the Roots of Climate Action Panel,” featuring (Left to Right): Lee Simmons (Seed Commons), Stephanie Guilloud (Project South), Stephanie Brobby (Good Ancestor Movement), Kate B. (Capital J Collective)
This discussion allowed me to contextualize global finance, explaining that 75% of climate finance is in the form of loans while only 25% is provided in the form of grants. However, loans collect high interest rates and in this stark disparity between loans versus grants, there is an overwhelming burden on the Global South to rely on these loans to adapt to the climate crisis. In fact, the Global South had five times more debt repayments in 2021 than the Global North and these relationships mutually enforce and entrench people further in the system. Justice cannot be developed on the basis of profiteering and capitalist financial structures.
How strange is it, that we as people worship our financial markets and its metrics at the expense of human dignity? I have found myself equally guilty of this.
In response to my real-time existential crisis, while listening to the panel, they offered the audience the spheres of climate finance and how to move forward as a movement:
- Cultivate and nourish frontline relationships and accountability.
“The acorn does not know the complexity of the forest.”
We are so quick to trust the “finance people” to set climate targets for us, yet it is people who are on the frontlines that are most attuned to the problem and the solutions. We need to understand that proximity is evidence, and to stay in true accountability to movements is to build programs, streams, etc. in harmony with them. You would never try to fix a car with an accountant, you would recruit the mechanic.
- Allow yourself to undergo self-transformation and provide support to those who would like to undergo the same.
We need to bring people along to the movement. We may not speak the same language, but there is an appetite for change and we need to start educating people in proximity to money, and the impacts of their decisions on how to steward money. Across the country, high net-worth individuals, advisors, accountants, etc. are all struggling with the tensions of their legal obligations and their values. It’s time that we provide hospice to these people and welcome them through education and values alignment. We, as a movement, need to advocate for a revolution both in the mind and the heart, as to move towards collective abundance.
- Invest in resistance.
“Be catalytic, not concessionary.”
The stakes of not actively protesting and stopping fossil fuel exploration and expansion, and the structures that perpetuate harm are clear. To give an example, in Atlanta, organizers protesting towards the building of Cop City and the infringement on Indigenous lands, collected 116,000 signatures for a petition against the project (to compare, the latest mayoral election only fostered 70,000 votes). At the same time, proponents of the project are coming after the frontlines’ ability to participate in political pursuits, going after migrant workers, land defenders, and marginalized peoples.
There are many stories that parallel this story, and it’s time for people with deep wallets to realize that if we do not start supporting the resistance work, then our dollars become a vote for maintaining the status quo – and protecting the abusers of power.
- Invest in building
Movements and organizing often are mislabeled as “scrappy and stupid.” This is not the case as many frontline movements are well-organized, world-building, stable, strong, and strategic. This is a narrative people are told so that the powerful can convince civic society to associate frontline activism with violence and “primitive” behaviour, so as to diminish the work happening on the frontlines within the grassroots. The political and social infrastructure of social movements are strong, and they are growing – and we need to invest in the sustainability of these strong grassroots movements to scale and catalyze the coalitions that will bring about change.
Image Description: “Breakfast in Bryant Park with international youth intermediaries including (Left to Right): Majandra Rodriguez Acha (FRIDA Fund), Xiye Bastida (Re-Earth Initiative), Nathan Méténier & Joshua Amponsem (Youth Climate Justice Fund), Desmond Alugnoa (Green Africa Youth Organization), Kat Cadungog (FES | The Youth Harbour).
Towards the end of my time in New York, I spent a lot more time sharing my learnings from this panel and advocating for funding for youth – especially those on the frontlines. I met incredible people at the Youth Climate Justice Fund launch, and was excited to see many familiar faces.
The next day, I spent time with some incredible re-granters and I’m excited to share… there are many exciting things to come.
“May we all have ears to hear.”
This wraps up Kat’s reflections on New York Climate Week 2023! Feel free to stay tuned by subscribing to our newsletter and keeping up to date on our website. Thank you so much for tuning in!
Image Description: Kat Cadungog and Jess LeBlanc at the Youth Climate Justice Fund launch event, with the Empire State Building in the background