A new climate initiative, The Global Returns Project, has launched a campaign to raise $10 billion per year to fund not-for-profit solutions to climate change via contributions to key charity projects.
The initiative, launched by a duo of former senior financial executives, is calling on pioneering individuals to ‘Reinvest in Earth’ by committing 0.25% of their savings and investments each year to organisations combating climate change.
Within the next decade, The Global Returns Projects aims to be raising $10 billion annually through this initiative to finance climate change solutions, with the first goal being to secure 5,000+ individuals with savings and investments to ‘Reinvest in Earth’ in 2021.
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The founders are also looking for financial institutions to help raise these funds, saying there is an untapped pool of $140 trillion private savings and investments globally. They claim that if just 3% of people with savings commit funds to this project, their annual target could be reached much more quickly.
The initiative is run by the Climate Crisis Foundation, founded in 2019 by Yan Swiderski, founder of investment management business Finisterre Capital, and Jasper Judd, who worked as a finance director of a range of business, most recently as senior executive of the Australian multinational Brambles.
Swiderski, a trustee of the Global Returns Project, said: “Funding not-for-profit climate solutions yields returns just like any other investment, the returns are externalised and shared, but they are real, identifiable, and global.
“Financial institutions are ready and willing to tackle the climate crisis. Individuals can help them make this small change which will have a huge effect.”
To achieve the ambitious goal, the contributions made to the cause will be donated across chosen partner charities including Ashden, ClientEarth, Global Canopy, Rainforest Trust and Trillion Trees.
The Global Returns Project pledges to ensure 100% of donated funds go directly to its charity partners, which have been identified through a bespoke selection methodology as the most effective climate solutions globally.
Judd, also a trustee on the project, added: “Urgent action is needed. We know people want to turn the tide on climate change, and the Global Returns Project gives individuals the chance to make a huge collective impact.
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“We are blurring the line between investment and philanthropy by thinking more broadly about what returns we should be looking for and working with financial institutions to create a new normal.”
