Driving Global Action on Climate Change
Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Environment program tackles one of the world’s greatest challenges: the climate crisis. With government and business leaders, experts, and grassroots advocates, we are taking bold action to build a more sustainable economy.
Overview
Driving the U.S. transition from coal and methane gas to clean energy
Stopping the expansion of petrochemicals in key U.S. states
Advocating for global coal plant closures, clean energy policies, and mobilizing capital
Leading sustainable finance work by supporting the private sector to reach net-zero emissions, disclose climate risks, and invest in the clean energy transition
Supporting local climate action with mayors and other local leaders
Partnering with cities to improve air quality
Protecting ocean ecosystems and coastal communities
Driving the U.S. Transition Away from Fossil Fuels
Bloomberg Philanthropies has long been at the forefront of the U.S. fight to end coal and accelerate the transition to clean energy, beginning with our partnership with the Sierra Club on the grassroots Beyond Coal campaign in 2011. In 2019, building on that campaign’s success, we launched Beyond Carbon to retire all remaining U.S. coal plants by 2030, block proposed methane gas plants, and support states and climate leaders to pass strong clean energy policies. In 2022 alone, through grassroots pressure, litigation, advocacy, and other strategies, the program secured retirements of 17 coal plants, blocked 34 new gas plants, and helped three states pass 100% clean energy or net-zero emissions policies. In the decade between 2010 and 2020, this work delivered more than 80% of all the progress the United States has made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2022, Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a new campaign to block the construction or expansion of new U.S. petrochemical facilities, a major source of carbon emissions, air pollution, and cancer-causing toxins. Petrochemicals are a broad group of chemicals that are derived from gas and oil and used to make plastics and fertilizers. Our Beyond Petrochemicals campaign aims to block roughly 120 proposed facilities that would produce petrochemicals, concentrated in five states: Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Existing facilities already meet the current demand for petrochemicals, and these planned facilities threaten to subject local communities to even greater health and climate risks.
Global Reach, Local Impact: Minnesota
Retired over
70%
70%of all U.S. coal plants since 2010
Blocked
31%
31%of proposed gas capacity since 2020
18 states and 2 territories now have policies to reach
100%
100%clean energy or net-zero emissions
Chambers Power Station, a coal plant we helped retire in Carneys Point, New Jersey, is transitioning to a clean energy transmission and storage facility.
Spotlight
Mike joined key partners to launch the Beyond Petrochemicals campaign in September 2022.
Beyond Petrochemicals
In September 2022, our partners used litigation and grassroots organizing to block the massive Formosa petrochemical plant, which was proposed along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The plant would have released carbon emissions equivalent to three coal plants, along with other toxic pollutants.
Accelerating the Global Clean Energy Transition
Beginning in 2017 with the launch of the Europe Beyond Coal campaign, Bloomberg Philanthropies has worked to end coal and accelerate clean energy investment globally. In Europe, this work has retired more than 52% of the continent’s coal plants. Similar campaigns have secured the early retirement of one-third of Australia’s plants and one-third of South Korea’s plants, and canceled more than half of Japan’s planned plants. We have also supported additional research, advocacy, and technical assistance in China, India, and Indonesia to help lay out a path for the clean energy transition. In 2022, we expanded this work to 25 developing countries across Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America with the greatest threat of new coal and the greatest potential for clean energy development.
Bloomberg Philanthropies also leads and supports a wide array of efforts to mobilize the private sector in the global climate fight. Mike chairs the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), which shares guidelines to help companies quantify and disclose risks posed by climate change, bringing greater transparency to the financial impacts of the climate crisis. He also co-chairs the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) with Bloomberg Philanthropies board member Mark Carney, which helps financial institutions and other private-sector organizations commit to reaching net-zero emissions, create credible and science-based transition plans, and invest in the global transition to clean energy.
More than 550 financial institutions with assets of
$135trillion
$135trillionhave committed to reaching net-zero through GFANZ
Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero co-chairs Mike Bloomberg and Mark Carney, and vice chair Mary Schapiro, met with UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten
Spotlight
Global Coal to Clean Energy Work
- Ongoing work in 7 countries and Europe
- Work launched in 2022 in 25 developing countries
Improving Global Air Quality
Bloomberg Philanthropies supports efforts that improve air quality management to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect public health. Since 2019, this work has helped seven cities — Brussels, Denver, London, Milan, Mumbai, Paris, and Warsaw — deploy hundreds of air quality sensors, analyze data, and pass policies to reduce pollution. We also partner at the national level with India and Indonesia to help manage air pollution and support the transition to clean energy. In total, we have helped pass more than 30 clean air policies.
Global Reach, Local Impact: Mumbai
Spotlight
Bloomberg Philanthropies partnered with London to gather air quality data and better manage air pollution. Credit: Clear Channel UK
Breathe London
Together with Mayor Sadiq Khan, we have supported the deployment of more than 200 low-cost air sensors across London to improve access to reliable, localized, real-time air quality data. The resulting data has helped Mayor Khan make the case for closing school streets to traffic and expanding the city’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone with charges for high-emitting vehicles. This work has led to four million more residents breathing cleaner air.
Strengthening Local Climate Action
Bloomberg Philanthropies invests in local climate action across the United States. America Is All In, which Mike co-chairs, is the most expansive coalition of leaders ever assembled in support of U.S. climate action, rallying thousands of cities, states, tribal nations, businesses, and more to meet the Paris Agreement goals. In 2022, the group released a landmark report that showed how the country, with the critical steps taken by local leaders together with ongoing federal action and funding, can meet its national target to halve carbon emissions by 2030.
We also work closely with two leading city networks committed to the climate fight: the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy. C40 includes nearly 100 major cities whose mayors have committed to reducing emissions and strengthening their climate resilience. Three-quarters of C40 cities are cutting per capita emissions faster than their national governments, and they have reduced air pollution by 5% since 2018. The Global Covenant is an alliance of more than 12,000 cities and local governments focused on creating ambitious targets to limit emissions and reporting on their progress. Mike serves as president of the board of C40 and as co-chair of the Global Covenant.
Global Reach, Local Impact: Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur
Protecting Ocean Ecosystems and Coastal Communities
Bloomberg Philanthropies works with global partners to protect the world’s ocean from the threats of climate change, overfishing, and pollution. In 2022, we launched a new phase of the initiative to help achieve the United Nations’ goal of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030, boosted by the recent adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. We are supporting global partners to advocate for data-driven solutions, community involvement, and policy change that can help safeguard marine ecosystems, including coral reefs. This work is critical both to the global climate fight and to the livelihoods of coastal communities.
Global Reach, Local Impact: Chile
Strengthened the protection of
10.8million
10.8millionsquare miles of ocean
Helped pass
17
17national laws on ocean conservation
Reached commitments from
10
10countries to publish data on fishing vessel locations
Bloomberg Philanthropies works to protect ocean ecosystems, like this reef in Fiji. Credit: Tom Vierus/Wildlife Conservation Society
Convening Global Leaders to Accelerate Action on Climate Change
Throughout 2022, Bloomberg Philanthropies brought together world leaders, mayors, experts, and climate advocates on critical environmental issues
In September, we co-hosted the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit with The Earthshot Prize to highlight groundbreaking climate innovations and solutions.
In October, at the 2022 C40 World Mayors Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the C40 Cities Bloomberg Philanthropies Awards recognized the 10 most ambitious, impactful, and replicable global climate projects in cities. The winning cities are cleaning the air, improving waste management, expanding green spaces and bus lanes, and much more.
In November, we served as an official partner for the UN’s COP27 climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, where we made a series of major announcements to expand our work on the clean energy transition in developing countries, bring data and transparency to private sector climate commitments, and build new public-private partnerships. In the 45 days leading up to the summit, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Bloomberg L.P., and our partners also took more than 90 actions to support the UN’s climate agenda.
Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Environment program
Top photo: In western Pennsylvania, our efforts helped secure the retirement of this major coal plant, the Keystone Generating Station.