To Tackle the Climate Crisis, Philanthropy Needs to Get Religion

By Fletcher Harper, Yonatan Neril, and Susan Hendershot
 
Demonstrators call for climate action on the African continent prior to the COP27 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 4, 2022, which start on Nov. 6, and is scheduled to end on Nov. 18, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

 

 
PETER DEJONG, AP
Demonstrators calling for climate action on the African continent.
Billions of philanthropic dollars have funneled into climate and environmental groups in recent years, helping these movements increase the scope of their work and more forcefully address the climate crisis. Recent reports, however, show that almost none of that funding has gone to a field that is fast becoming one of the world’s most important environmental stewards — religious organizations.

This makes little sense. Religious groups have played indispensable roles in past social movements and are forceful leaders in the fight for a sustainable and healthy planet. They provide moral and spiritual energy that the climate movement urgently needs and increasingly articulate pro-environment interpretations of their moral teachings and rituals. Many religious organizations are also turning their substantial property holdings green and are at the forefront of efforts to divest from fossil-fuel assets.

Read the rest of this op-ed in Philanthropy magazine, here.