The IKEA Foundation to invest €600M in charitable climate solutions by 2025: Know more

The IKEA Foundation announced on Friday, November 11, that it will invest €600M in different climate solutions and has published fresh research analysing what investments can yield the highest emissions reductions across key industries.

The analysis, which was released during the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2022, was carried out in collaboration with Systemiq – a system change company, and RMI – a nonprofit organisation founded as the Rocky Mountain Institute that aims to speed up the clean energy transition.

The IKEA Foundation stated in 2021 that it will provide an additional €1B in funding for climate change initiatives over a five-year period with the strategic objective of lowering global emissions. A total of €400M of this investment will go toward the COP26-launched Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet. The Systemiq and RMI study will guide the IKEA Foundation’s use of the remaining €600M in climate funds.

The aim of this research

The IKEA Foundation hopes that by making the research public, the global philanthropic community would increase its support for climate change initiatives and maintain the target of keeping global warming to 1.5°C.

Per Heggenes, CEO of IKEA Foundation, says, “We know that a rapid and sustained decrease in global emissions is required if the world is to meet its pledge of keeping global warming at or below 1.5°C. By sharing our research we hope to support and inspire other philanthropies, during this decisive decade for our planet, to step up their ambition to safeguard our environment.”

Jeremy Oppenheim, Founder of Systemiq, adds, “Less than 2 per cent of philanthropic capital goes to climate mitigation. This allocation needs to be scaled fast. But this is not just a volume game. It matters where and how philanthropy uses its capital. The methodology we developed with the IKEA Foundation and RMI could be the critical unlock that helps foundations prioritise the highest impact interventions to reduce emissions and deploy capital fast.”

Brief about Systemiq and RMI

Systemiq was founded in 2016 to drive the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. It focuses on five essential systems: energy, urban areas, sustainable finance, materials and circularity, and nature and food. Systemiq collaborates with industry, finance, policymakers, and civil society to bring about system transformation by combining strategic advising with high-impact, on-the-ground operations.

RMI is an independent nonprofit organisation that was founded in 1982 with the goal of transforming the world’s energy systems in order to meet the 1.5°C goal and guarantee a clean and carbon-free future for everyone. The company works in the most important regions of the world and collaborates with businesses, policymakers, communities, and NGOs to identify and scale energy system interventions that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2030.

What can limit global warming to 1.5°C?

In order to keep global warming to 1.5°C, the research considered five systems in which the consumption and production of GHG emissions need to be transformed to limit global warming to 1.5°C: Energy & Power, Food & Land Use, Industry, Transport, and Buildings.

Some of the high-impact opportunities identified are:

• Targeting financial assistance for a fair and inclusive energy transition
• Market development for reducing upstream methane emissions
• Establishing the ability for government-level peatland protection and restoration programmes
• Encouraging a switch to plant-based and alternative proteins
• Establishing a market and favourable conditions to reduce agricultural methane emissions
• Stepping up efforts to improve value chains so they can decrease losses
• Operating to support the market for electric 2 and 3 wheelers and funding innovation
• Space cooling in emerging economies. 

Read the full research here.

About the IKEA Foundation

The IKEA Foundation is a charitable organisation that concentrates its grant-making efforts on combating the two main dangers to the futures of children: poverty and climate change. 

Currently, it distributes more than €200M annually to assist raise family incomes and enhance the quality of life while preventing climate change. More than €1.5B has been donated by the IKEA Foundation since 2009 to improve the lives of children and their families.