At 9:30 a.m. on October 20, 2023, China Environmental Grantmakers Alliance (CEGA) held Salon 32 - Charitable Giving and Climate Change. Ms. Cheng Fen, Vice President of China Institute of Philanthropy, Beijing Normal University; Ms. Cheng Mian, Climate Project Manager, Vanke Foundation; Ms. Lina Guo, Energy Transition Project Manager, World Wide Fund for Nature (Switzerland) Beijing Representative Office; and Ms. Xie Duanduan, Climate Project Manager, WildAid were guests at the salon to deliver keynote speeches. Mr. LAN Keqi, Project Manager of Lao Niu Foundation, and Mr. Chu Qingxin, Director of Innovative Product Research Office of Wanxiang Trust, participated in the roundtable dialogue with the above guests.

Ms. Zhang Ruiying, the salon host, first introduced the background of this salon. The sources of environmental charity funds include international funds, public donations from Internet platforms, corporate donations and donations from high net worth individuals. According to incomplete statistics, domestic/international giving on environmental issues accounts for only 2% of total giving, and giving on climate change is even less. But the future of the two-carbon goal is here, and the urgency of tackling the climate crisis can no longer be overstated. China is also a country that takes on major responsibilities and leadership in the world, and public welfare is an important force to achieve solutions to the climate crisis. But the state of climate philanthropy feels inadequate. Therefore, we hope that the guests of this salon will talk about their observations on charitable donation and climate change from different perspectives and the strength of cooperation in the future, so that our environmental charity and climate charity can be gathered through multiple channels, and trickle into a river, and jointly contribute to the cause of national and global climate change.

Vice President Cheng Fen introduced that since the 2011 Top 100 list began to observe the situation of donations in China, it was found that donations in the environmental field were in line with the historical background of social development. For example, desertification control and pollution control are important keywords to attract the attention of philanthropists to generate donations. In addition, it is found that the international perspective of philanthropists is closely related to the degree of international charitable exchanges. With the development of the issue, climate change has gradually attracted the attention of domestic philanthropists. The survey shows that with the increase of assets and educational level of high net worth individuals, the proportion of them concerned about environmental protection is relatively high on average, and this group has significant donation potential. Tracing the influencing factors of climate change donations, Cheng Fen believes that the awareness of climate change, the boundaries of climate action, and the professional ability and influence of the industry to absorb the donated funds all affect the will and action of donors. Strategically, raising awareness through social advocacy is still number one, she said. In addition, it can change the narrative strategy of climate change and emphasize the close correlation between climate change and other issues in the field of public welfare and philanthropy.

Ms. Guo Lina introduced the key actions taken by WWF during the 2022 Climate Action Week to bring the public closer to climate issues, enhance their understanding of renewable energy, and empower them to participate and achieve carbon neutrality. She stated that before and after the dual carbon targets, there has been a certain change in domestic attention to climate issues. The public shows a certain level of awareness and understanding towards climate issues, and the complex and grand narrative of climate issues makes it difficult for the public to empathize. She analyzed the influencing factors of international funding support for climate issues through a public climate communication project. Through the analysis of the action experience of climate communication projects, she believes that the advantages presented by institutional positioning and past project experience have an impact on gaining the trust of international funding donors. The effectiveness of project design, methods, and goal achievement will also become a core concern for stakeholders.

Ms. Xie Duanduan said that "through transmission to protect" is the foundation of Wildaid. A number of communication cases give full play to the power of the example of star public welfare ambassadors, produce high-quality public welfare content at low cost, and trigger the emotional resonance of the public through various media channels, so as to promote rational thinking and action participation, and ultimately change the unsustainable consumption and lifestyle of the public. Wildaid reaches an average of 100 million people a week through various media channels. In order to better motivate consumers to change their driving patterns of sustainable consumption, she stressed the need for multi-stakeholder interaction, strengthening the synergy of government agencies, businesses, media, including supporters and funders, and enhancing cooperation to effectively address climate change.

In response to the impact of the domestic policy environment on the development trend of charitable donations, Cheng Fen said that the incentives of domestic policies for charitable donations are well implemented in the system. Recent policies and speeches by leaders have set the bar in the direction of giving on climate change, but society still needs to catch up. In terms of how to further touch the climate issue to the high net worth population, Cheng Fen believes that themed or suitable for high net worth individuals to participate in conference activities is an important starting point. She mentioned that in the past international philanthropist exchange activities and some important conference occasions and topic areas, the first issue to affect the group and change their ideas, and then further contact professional institutions, so that they can understand the object of donation and specific action content, to form such an efficient and concentrated climate solution path, so that they can make donation decisions more easily.

In view of the observation of investment channels in the international climate field, Guo Lina said that at present, there are mainly government aid funds in the world, (mainly from the governments of Western developed countries to provide funds to support developing countries). This type of funding is typically more focused on compliance and the execution of project management budgets. The second category is the funding fund. The field of promotion has shifted from research policy recommendations to focus on promoting policy implementation. The third category is enterprises. Driven by the corporate social responsibility of international companies or brands, they seek innovative climate solutions through the power of public welfare through the model of public funding. The last category is the individual. In the face of the global economic downturn, individual giving in Western countries is also declining. Funding applicants need to identify areas not supported by international funding and give further consideration to project design and packaging. In view of the areas that will continue to invest funds, Guo Lina said that accelerated emission reduction and energy transition will continue, and the frequent occurrence of extreme weather events and climate adaptation are undoubtedly now hot spots. Investment and industry development from renewable energy in China to help the energy transition in specific regions of the world is also a likely direction of financing. Taking WWF's Energy Transition Initiative as an example, the organization works with partners to connect experts and local businesses to promote the energy transition. Inter-agency collaboration further leverages greater projects and impact.

Regarding the opportunity for the Lao Niu Foundation to focus on climate issues and how to bring more people with insight to join the field of climate change in the next step, Mr. Rankochi stressed that the climate issues have a strong continuity with the previous work of the Foundation. The first is the encouragement and policy support of the government, which leaves a port for the foundation to participate in ecological and environmental protection work; Second, Mr. Niu Gensheng's own advocacy and practice; The third is to cooperate with professional and strong strategic partners. The Old Cow Foundation began to promote climate change projects by co-funding with a number of donor foundations or corporate foundations. Each partner clearly donated and invested in the project content will promote the shape of a good climate charity atmosphere. This needs to focus on three key points - the effectiveness of the project, the professionalism and stability of the team, and the engagement (enhancing the donor's or funder's climate philanthropic giving, learning and experience, etc.). He said that the foundation has several visual goals for its work, including continuous ecological restoration and protection of arid ecosystems, intelligent management of grasslands, participation in the construction of migratory bird flight channels and water bird databases, with the support of the government of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, scientific research institutes and financial institutions to jointly promote urban carbon neutrality in multiple scenarios, and create demonstration and pilot work that the public can experience.

Regarding how charitable trusts help donors practice charity and promote the development of the environmental public welfare industry, Mr. Chu Qingxin said that the total scale of charitable trusts is about 6.2 billion, and the scale involving environmental issues only accounts for about 3.5%, which is related to the four characteristics of environmental problems or gas problems - long cycle, slow effect, not obvious visualization, and not strong interaction. In the process from policy formulation and advocacy to implementation, it is necessary to transform the passive choice of donors into active charity, and it is also necessary for all parties to think backward about the value experience of donors and be guided by the will and service of donors. The project design should fully consider the needs of donors, such as whether the surrounding communities can be brought along when promoting corporate changes, and whether the project can be combined with existing environmental projects, so that the project has more conditions for public participation, and create a field for donors to intuitively feel the combination of ideas, behaviors and changes. As for charitable trusts, he stressed that charitable trusts are also a donation tool, which does not conflict with the existence of foundations and charitable organizations, nor replace each other, but is more of a state of cooperation. In terms of the types of donated assets, charitable trusts are more flexible. When donors donate non-cash assets such as equity and real estate, charitable trusts can assist foundations in undertaking and managing the donated assets. At the same time, the decision-making mechanism is also flexible, and charitable trusts can meet the demands of intergenerational management of donors. In the implementation of specific projects, foundations or public welfare organizations are required to play a leading role. In addition, as a financial institution, trust companies can play the characteristics of information intermediaries and financial institutions, and transmit influence and guide value.

Regarding how Wildaid attracts the understanding and cooperation of donors on climate issues, Xie Duanduan said that the advantage of Wildaid lies in the field of communication, positioning itself as a bridge among relevant parties in the action, and disseminating scientific knowledge or policies in a way that is easy for the public to understand. Create public service announcement video materials to address public awareness of climate change. Lowering the threshold for public participation in climate action through services and products provided by enterprises and partners. She said that in the future work, we can consider designing more visual projects, and creating an interactive field with the strength of many families, further promoting donations from important donors, and producing more powerful impact and communication effects.

Moderator Zhang Ruiying summarized and shared that today's salon in-depth discussion on charitable donation and climate change issues, from various perspectives, including from the perspective of policy, big charity, or international donors, international ngos, domestic foundations and charitable trusts as charitable tools. The consensus is that climate change is not as visible as traditional philanthropy issues, and the problems to be solved are complex but have insufficient philanthropic resources, including insufficient donations from high net worth individuals. At the same time, we also reached a consensus that in the next stage, we should integrate resources, jointly promote and tell the story of climate change. The environmental public sector can work together to make climate projects as visual and understandable as other traditional projects such as education and disaster relief. CEGA plans to start in November with a salon dedicated to telling good stories about climate change. Stay tuned and see you then!

The salon ended successfully.