News

With more than 40,000 delegates converging on Paris with an expressed goal of achieving a legally binding agreement among 195 nations to curb climate change, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference – COP21 – was an unprecedented opportunity for us to get a first-hand look at the impact of the Nathan Cumming Foundation’s grantmaking efforts on shaping this international agreement. Many of our grantees were with us in Paris. We benefitted from their reflections and wanted to share ours.

We witnessed an unparalleled moment in climate history. Organizations representing grassroots constituencies from around the world emphasized the importance of community-led solutions and reinforced our shared values to pursue environmental solutions that enhance social equity and improve people’s lives. By all accounts, the Paris accord is a huge victory and offers a clear signal to the business community and world leaders that the world is ready for a low-carbon future.

“We have a tremendous opportunity now to initiate and inspire change. But it’s going to take imagination, hope and creativity,” said Board Chair Adam N. Cummings. “The science and data continue to grow more compelling, but we can’t let people become overwhelmed and paralyzed by it. It is critical that we take the data and translate it in actionable ways that get people involved on a community level and help them understand this data in a context that empowers them to do something in the world.”

Both Adam and Board Treasurer Ruth Cummings were inspired by constituency-building organizations and US and global funding peers, many of whom they met in person for the first time. They also discussed the important function NCF can play connecting hearts and minds.

“Paris reaffirmed that we as an organization landed in the right place by focusing on climate change and inequality,” Ruth said. “People living in poverty suffer the harshest effects of climate change. Our work can be the important bridge that connects the heartstrings to the hard policies. It is up to us now to double down on what we’re already doing so we can support grassroots organizations, hold business leaders accountable and engage with hearts and minds. We can be a leader moving beyond the fear factor and on to solutions.”

NCF President Sharon Alpert said the breadth and diversity of the movement made this COP different from previous gatherings.

“There was such a big difference between this COP and past COPs,” she said. “It was evident how much work NCF – with many colleagues and other funders – has been doing over the years to build a much broader constituency on behalf of climate change. Young leaders, faith leaders, business leaders, city leaders, indigenous leaders, grassroots communities and more are now part of the conversation reminding us that social change at this kind of scale is not just about solving the environmental problem. As we heard in Paris, the scale of the problem is finally evident: this is not just about climate, it is about reshaping the entire global economy. As Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC told us during a gathering of funders: this agreement is chaning the economic development model of the last 150 years and our job is to turbo charge it while making sure we’re safeguarding the most vulnerable. It’s about a new energy economy.  It’s about jobs. It’s about democratic ownership, which tracks with our inequality priorities. Zero by 2050 sets a clear pace, but we now need to do the hard work.”

The call to action was felt by all of the NCF representatives who went to Paris.

“There’s a conversation that can happen now between those at the policy level and those at the grassroots, and that’s an opportunity that didn’t exist before,” said Maurine Knighton, Senior Vice President of Grantmaking. “We can break people out of their echo chambers, and push for transparency and accountability.”

The 21^st annual session of the Conference of Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)