The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) is a United Kingdom-based non-profit foundation that focuses on providing financial support to climate-change initiatives, environmentalist organizations, and to groups tackling various issues concerning children. ^{1 2}

CIFF Foundation pledged $7,000,000 to the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), a project that has heavily pushed for litigation against energy and fossil fuel companies due to the costs attributed to climate change. ³

The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation also contributed £150,000 (roughly $196,000) to Extinction Rebellion (XR), a radical environmental activist organization created in the United Kingdom in mid-2019. ⁴

Background

The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) was founded by Christopher Hohn, an English hedge fund manager, billionaire philanthropist, and funder of the radical environmentalist group Extinction Rebellion,⁵ alongside his ex-wife Jaimee Cooper-Hohn (now known as Jaimee Cooper). ⁶ Hohn and Cooper also created the Children’s Investment Fund Management (TCI), a hedge fund run by Hohn with the intent of funneling 1% of its assets to CIFF. ⁷

CIFF employs approximately 120 people across the world in countries such as England, Kenya, Ethiopia, China, and India. The foundation has offices in Addis Ababa, Beijing, London, Nairobi, and New Delhi. ⁸

Christopher Hohn was ordered to pay £337 million (approximately $440 million) to Jaimee Cooper in 2014 after the pair divorced. Hohn and Cooper have an ongoing (as of early 2020) court case as to whether the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation should be forced to pay £270 million (approximately $350 million) to Big Win Philanthropy, a charity Cooper founded after the divorce. ⁹

CIFF has received donations amounting to approximately $2.1 billion since 2004 and had an endowment value of $5.1 billion in 2018. ¹⁰

Environmental Funding

The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation was started by Hohn and Cooper to help improve “the lives of children in developing countries who live in poverty,”¹¹ however; according to a RealClearInvestigations article published on January 6, 2020, the organization has been used by Honn to pass money towards environmentalist campaigns and other foundations pushing for legal action against energy companies due to the cost of climate change. ¹²

The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation pledged $7,000,000 to the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), a project of environmental advocacy group the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development (IGSD). Started in 2017, the project has heavily pushed for litigation against energy and fossil fuel companies due to costs said to be attributed to climate change. ¹³ According to CIFF, the investment will be used to support investigations and litigations in multiple countries around the world. It will also support a new climate activism narrative called the “polluter pays principle” which will “drive strong compliance with existing laws and set a new precedence for ambitious laws on climate action.” ¹⁴

Other climate change-related grants that the CIFF has contributed include just under $25,000,000 to the European Climate Foundation to assist the European Union in reducing carbon emissions by 40% by 2030. ¹⁵

CIFF also contributed $16,030,864 to ClientEarth Phase II, an initiative of ClientEarth, an environmental law organization based in the United Kingdom that conducts environmentalist legal activities. ¹⁶ The CIFF grant focuses on supporting “strategic litigation to accelerate Europe’s low carbon transition and secure Europe’s climate leadership by putting it on a path to net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.” ¹⁷

Other grants include $9,600,000 to C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, $20,000,000 to the Clean Air Fund, $11,000,000 to the Foundation for International Law for the Environment, $9,700,000 to Climate Strategic Litigation Europe, and $7,600,000 to Industrial Decarbonization. ¹⁸

The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, alongside its co-founder Christopher Hohn, contributed large amounts of money to Extinction Rebellion (XR), a radical environmental activist organization created in the United Kingdom in mid-2019 which has engaged in acts of direct action aimed at bringing about its climate policy “demands,” the main one being the elimination of the use of conventional “fossil fuels” by 2025. ¹⁹

Hohn personally contributed £50,000 (approximately $65,000) to XR, and the CIFF contributed £150,000 (roughly $196,000)²⁰ to the activist group which uses tactics such as mass occupation of major streets and landmarks,²¹ property defacement and destruction,²² and causing public disturbances outside the offices of major media organizations to further its goals. ²³

1. “Grant Portfolio.” Grant Portfolio: Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. Accessed March 10, 2020. https://ciff.org/grant-portfolio/list/.
2. “Our Approach and Values.” CIFF. Accessed March 10, 2020. https://ciff.org/about-us/our-approach-and-values/.
3. “Revealed: Foreign Billionaire Behind the Group Pushing American Cities to Sue Energy Producers.” EID Climate – A Project of IPAA, January 8, 2020. https://eidclimate.org/revealed-foreign-billionaire-behind-the-group-pushing-american-cities-to-sue-energy-producers/.
4. “Not American, but He’s Got a Rich Footprint in U.S. Environmental Politics.” RealClearInvestigations. Accessed March 10, 2020. https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/01/06/a_british_billionaires_big_investments_in_us_environmental_politics_121359.html.
5. Gilbert, Mark. “The Hedge Fund Industry Gets Its Own Greta Thunberg.” Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg. Accessed March 10, 2020. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-12-02/christopher-hohn-goes-extinction-rebellion-on-hedge-fund-industry.
6. “Who We Are.” CIFF. Accessed March 10, 2020. https://ciff.org/about-us/who-we-are/
7. Reporter, Daily Mail. “City High-Flier Is UK’s Most Generous Donor.” This is Money. This Is Money, June 29, 2006. https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-1599999/City-high-flier-is-UKs-most-generous-donor.html.
8. “Children’s Investment Fund Foundation – About.” LinkedIn. Accessed March 10, 2020. https://www.linkedin.com/company/children’s-investment-fund-foundation-ciff-/about/.
9. Mailonline, Ed Riley For. “Billionaire Fights £270m Supreme Court Battle with Ex-Wife Who Already Won £337m from Him.” Daily Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, January 14, 2020. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7885829/Billionaire-fights-270m-Supreme-Court-battle-ex-wife-won-337m-him.html.
10. “Endowment.” CIFF. Accessed March 10, 2020. https://ciff.org/about-us/endowment/.
11. “Who We Are.” CIFF. Accessed March 10, 2020. https://ciff.org/about-us/who-we-are/.
12. “Revealed: Foreign Billionaire Behind the Group Pushing American Cities to Sue Energy Producers.” EID Climate – A Project of IPAA, January 8, 2020. https://eidclimate.org/revealed-foreign-billionaire-behind-the-group-pushing-american-cities-to-sue-energy-producers/.
13. “Revealed: Foreign Billionaire Behind the Group Pushing American Cities to Sue Energy Producers.” EID Climate – A Project of IPAA, January 8, 2020. https://eidclimate.org/revealed-foreign-billionaire-behind-the-group-pushing-american-cities-to-sue-energy-producers/.
14. “Centre for Climate Integrity.” CIFF. Accessed March 10, 2020. https://ciff.org/grant-portfolio/centre-climate-integrity/.
15. “European Climate Foundation.” CIFF. Accessed March 10, 2020. https://ciff.org/grant-portfolio/european-climate-foundation/.
16. Wheatley, Jane. “James Thornton: Saving the Planet, One Court Case at a Time.” The Sydney Morning Herald. The Sydney Morning Herald, June 16, 2017. https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/james-thornton-saving-the-planet-one-court-case-at-a-time-20170601-gwic7f.html.
17. “ClientEarth Phase II.” CIFF. Accessed March 10, 2020. https://ciff.org/grant-portfolio/clientearth-phase-ii/.
18. “Grant Portfolio.” Grant Portfolio: Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. Accessed March 10, 2020. https://ciff.org/grant-portfolio/list/.
19. “Our Demands.” Extinction Rebellion. Accessed March 10, 2020. https://rebellion.earth/the-truth/demands/.
20. “Not American, but He’s Got a Rich Footprint in U.S. Environmental Politics.” RealClearInvestigations. Accessed March 10, 2020. https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/01/06/a_british_billionaires_big_investments_in_us_environmental_politics_121359.html.
21. Taylor, Matthew, and Damien Gayle. “Dozens Arrested after Climate Protest Blocks Five London Bridges.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, November 17, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/17/thousands-gather-to-block-london-bridges-in-climate-rebellion.
22. Taylor, Matthew, and Damien Gayle. “Thousands Block Roads in Extinction Rebellion Protests across London.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, April 15, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/15/thousands-expected-in-london-for-extinction-rebellion-protest.
23. Andone, Dakin. “NYPD Arrests 66 People at a Climate Protest Outside The New York Times Offices.” CNN. Cable News Network, June 24, 2019. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/22/us/extinction-rebellion-new-york-times-arrests/index.html.