ClimateWorks Foundation

ClimateWorks supports effective climate policies, such as imposing a price on carbon, enacting effective international treaties, and encouraging national emissions reduction targets, that can help shift the global economy away from carbon-intensive practices and toward low-carbon alternatives.

To help achieve our ambitious climate policy goals — limiting annual global greenhouse gas emissions to 44 billion metric tons by the year 2020 and 35 billion metric tons by the year 2030—ClimateWorks supports several grantees, including our Regional Climate Foundations and the Bipartisan Policy Center, and conducts policy research that helps policymakers identify the best way to reduce emissions. 

At the domestic level, ClimateWorks encourages adoption and implementation of aggressive climate policies in our priority regions:  

• China: ClimateWorks’ partners provide analytical and technical assistance to aid China’s efforts to significantly reduce the growth rate of its carbon emissions. Our Network organizations help develop policies, including an economy-wide low-carbon growth plan, and ensure their effective implementation.  

• India: The ClimateWorks Network supports the National Action Plan on Climate Change and its ambitious National Missions to expand solar energy and enhance energy efficiency, as well as various initiatives to decrease the carbon intensity of the nation’s economy. We also provide technical assistance on specific measures.

• Europe: ClimateWorks and its partners work to ensure the European Union remains a global leader on climate policy and adopts aggressive binding emission targets for 2020. We also support ambitious energy and climate policies in Eastern and Central Europe.

• United States: While supporting ongoing efforts to secure a national, economy-wide cap on U.S. carbon emissions, our partners also work at the state level to push for adoption of greenhouse gas limits and to preserve the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate carbon as a pollutant.

While significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved through strong national policies, we cannot prevent dangerous climate change through domestic policy alone. The volume of the developed world’s historic emissions, and wide disparities in access to low-carbon, clean technologies, require multilateral action to level the playing field and ensure that all cost-effective opportunities to reduce carbon emissions are captured.

ClimateWorks supports adoption of a binding post-Kyoto international treaty that sets aggressive carbon reduction goals; we also focus on several other international initiatives:

• Developing a mechanism for reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD)
• Facilitating low-carbon growth planning in developing and newly industrialized countries
• Creating short- and long-term climate finance mechanisms
• Supporting research, policy analysis, and action on short lived climate forcers such as methane and black carbon