It's always exciting to hear when our favourite actors, royal families or celebrities make large donations in the name of fighting climate change. Their big paychecks mean that donations can be generous and that their money is going towards a positive impact. But we rarely hear what has happened to those donations down the line and it's often hard to track what happens to funding and climate initiatives later on.
We've compiled a short list of climate initiatives, celebrity funds, and well-publicised climate projects that you may have heard of and wondered: What happened with that?
The Green Climate Fund
Set up by the United Nations in 2009, the Green Climate Fund was put together by 194 wealthy nations to ensure that nations who needed aid, had the finances necessary to deal with climate change. The nations pledged to donate $100 billion a year until 2020. Now, more than 10 years later, many are unsure as to whether this goal has been met, as the GCF's total financing committed to projects only amounts to 5.4 billion (with 4.5bn committed to projects under implementation). Whilst the fund has pledged an amount of $10.3bn, it is reported that they are running out of money and have had to discuss a new promise, which is to be committed to before 2025.
Gisele Bundchen's Ipanema sandals
Bundchen has often been recognised as one of the most charitable celebrities. Alongside being a goodwill ambassador of the UN, she has spent years donating to initiatives such as theZero Hunger Program and starting her own Projeto Água Limpa (Clean Water Project). Many know her for her Ipanema sandal brand, a footwear line which claims to donate a portion of its sales to a different charity every year. But since the brand started in 2006 what charities has the brand supported? Here's what we found: In 2006, Bündchen dedicated a percentage of the sales to environmental projects including "Y Ikatu Xingu", meaning "Save the Good Water of Xingu". In 2007 it supported the World Wildlife Fund project "Nascentes do Brasil" and "De olho nos manaciais" from ISA. In 2008, it funded a reforestation program called "Florestas do futuro" from SOS Mata and in 2011, a donation went to the Socio-Environmental Institute. Since 2011 it has been hard to find whether Ipanema still donate a portion of their sales or not but they have been involved with small community recycling projects.
The Giving Pledge
This pledge gained notoriety in 2009 when Bill Gates and Warren Buffet encouraged billionaires to give back the large part of their wealth to philanthropic initiatives. The pledge does not specify any particular charities or organisations and also allows billionaires to donate during their lifetime or in their will. But there is no official record being kept of where the pledgers donate or how much they have donated, making the funding hard to track. However we can track individual philanthropic efforts such as Elon Musk's donations of US$10 million to the Future of Life Institute aimed at keeping artificial intelligence beneficial to humanity.In a recent article for Market Watch, it was shown by the institute for policy studies that despite good intentions, some billionaires are gaining wealth faster than they can spend it, pointing to a bigger problem.
Jeremy Grantham
Although he may not be known to those without an interest in economics, Jeremy Grantham is the man who predicted the 2008 financial crisis. He also publicly vowed last year to give 98% of his wealth away to reverse the impact of global warming. So far the investor has been keeping on track with this promise and has donated to a green initiatives from food-tech startups combating waste to renewable energy in South East Asia
Leonardo Dicaprio's Eco-resort
Leonardo Dicaprio is one of Hollywood's most active and famous environmental activists. His foundation has donated millions of dollars to protect wildlife and the rights of Indigenous communities. In 2005 however Di Caprio made news when he purchased a 104 acre island which he announced would be turned into a "restorative island" by 2018. The update on this: whilst the resort was meant to open 2 years ago it was reported in 2019 that the opening was to be delayed due to environmental studies still being conducted and a delay in permits being issued by the Belize Government.
This list is just a very quick recap on a small number of climate initiatives that you may have heard of. We know that there are hundreds of climate initiatives going on every day and that many are amazing projects which often go unrecognised or unheard of. If you have updated information on any of these projects that we hadn't heard about, please let us know! We hope that list reminds us all to not only ask that public figures make realistic and transparent climate goals, but that they are kept accountable for these goals the whole way through.
Written by Frances Housdon
Fran is a young South African journalism graduate passionate about the outdoors, and getting other people to enjoy them with her. She loves paddling down long rivers, exploring big mountains and consuming bulk quantities of peanut butter.
Read this next: Your Bank Might Be Undoing All Your Good Work For The Planet, But It's Easy To Fix
Header photo byLucas Sandor onUnsplash