Funding climate action but financing climate destruction? An exploration of hybridity in climate philanthropy and investments

ABSTRACT

Inspired by recent media exposés of the unsustainable investment practices by philanthropic foundations with high-profile climate and environmental mission work, this commentary addresses the under-researched topics of philanthropic foundations’ identity as financial actors and their role in shaping the (sustainable) financial agenda. Philanthropy is commonly regarded as mission actors in the climate space, but its roles and power as asset owners are often overlooked, resulting in a lack of academic research or regulatory scrutiny on the sustainability impact of their investment strategies and practices. The commentary proposes ‘hybridity’ as an appropriate framework to understand philanthropic foundations’ unique position as both financial and mission actors. We propose four dimensions to assessing hybridity: network, policy, strategy and outcome. Foundations seeking to maximise their climate impact should aim to integrate their mission and investment along these dimensions. Similarly, these four dimensions provide a guideline for more comprehensive research and scrutiny of the impact of foundations on climate action. Finally, as businesses and financial institutions seek to integrate climate, biodiversity and other sustainability concerns into their day-to-day operations, we call for the wider adoption of ‘hybridity’ thinking in understanding the key opportunities and hurdles for private sector actors to achieve traditional business and sustainability objectives.

KEYWORDS:

• philanthropy
• climate change
• financial networks
• sustainable finance
• hybridity

JEL:

• D6, Q56, F65

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive comments. We also thank the organisers and participants in the ‘Pathologies of Philanthropic Power: Transdisciplinary Perspectives and Emergent Issues’ workshop for their helpful feedback and constructive comments. Finally, we also thank the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, for hosting Anne Monier’s visit as this is where the two authors met.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.