Public Private Partnerships

Welcome back to The Strawman, the daily climate newsletter that loves bringing together concepts that otherwise wouldn’t coexist. We’re like the friend who dips their fries in their McFlurry - it’s weird but you kinda love it.

Today we’re diving into the world of Public/Private partnerships on the road towards the Energy Transition - government led subsidies have always been around, but large private philanthropic organisations can add fuel to this fire and want to work with the government.

Let’s dive in.

It’s giving… Philanthropy

Most of us have heard about the world of Philanthropy - essentially a bunch of rich white dudes that made a tonne of money and are now hell bent on giving it away.

The most well known examples of this are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the second largest charitable foundation in the world, with a cool $50B that it’s giving away to a range of different causes - including to help the fight against climate change.

In Glasgow in 2021, the Rockefeller Foundation committed $500m alongside Ikea and the Bezos Earth Fund, to create the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP).

Their mission is simple:

• Accelerate investment in the green energy transition

• Provide 1bn people with reliable, renewable energy

• Avoid or avert 4bn tonnes of carbon emissions

• Create or improve 150mn jobs

All in a days’ work for a Philanthropist.

Getting down to the nitty gritty

The announcement wasn’t just about the grant funding from the private side - it also included funding commitments from the big multilateral development banks (MDBs) - organisations such as the World Bank and the IMF.

Put together - this is over $11B commited to putting money to work for climate-healthy projects in emerging economies.

Without the MDBs, there isn’t enough money in the system to move the needle - partnerships like these are an opportunity to massively increase the impact of giving.

According to Raj Shah (President of the Rockefeller Foundation) - there are two steps to getting renewable energy embedded into the infrastructure for emerging economies.

The first step is a big public-private alliance - getting countries to get excited about making electricity accessible for all given how much of an unlock it is for an economy.

The second component is getting the financing in place to support that excitement. Especially given the MDBs are running low after COVID-related lending, the GEAPP has brought together leaders from around the world to make sure the money is in place to support these ambitions.

It’s an interesting time to be a oil-money foundation, that’s for sure.

See ya tomorrow,

The Strawman