ClimateWorks Foundation

The ClimateWorks Foundation advances its left-of-center environmentalism through a wide array of projects, international partnerships, and campaigns, including its foundational Project Catalyst and its 2021 “Drive Electric Campaign” which seeks to prohibit the new sale of combustion engine vehicles in phases by 2040. ^{4 5}

As of 2024, Helen Mountford is the president, chief executive officer, and a board member at ClimateWorks Foundation. ⁶ Franklin Orr, Jr. is the board chair of the ClimateWorks Foundation board of directors. ⁷ Nancy Lindborg is the vice chair of the ClimateWorks Foundation board. ⁸

History

In 2007, six foundations, the Hewlett Foundation, the Packard Foundation, the Energy Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and the Oak Foundation met to discuss how philanthropy could advance environmentalist policy priorities. They sponsored a report on the subject entitled, “Design to Win: Philanthropy’s Role in the Fight Against Global Warming.” ² The report, written by scientists with the California Environmental Associates, argued that because politicians focus on the next election and CEOs focus on the next quarter’s profits, the longer time horizons of philanthropists make them uniquely qualified to address global warming. ⁹

Design to Win (DTW) advocated for emissions caps and energy-dependent energy quotas. It also urged philanthropists to invest heavily in lobbying to promote so-called “renewable” energy sources through taxpayer subsidies to utilities around the world. ¹⁰

To provide the necessary resources to reshape “the building blocks of the world economy,” the report argued that philanthropic funding for environmentalist issues should triple from the then-$200 million per year to an annual $600 million. ¹¹ To help reach that $600 million goal, the Hewlett Foundation, the Packard Foundation, and the McKnight Foundation, founded ClimateWorks in 2008. ¹² Hewlett’s Environment Program Director Hal Harvey took the position as the new foundation’s CEO. ¹³

ClimateWorks took in donations from wealthy left-wing foundations and issued grants to a network of environmentalist nonprofits. This method of bundling donations for redistribution to vetted nonprofits met a demand by many left-wing funders, who wanted experts to determine where their money would best achieve their environmentalist goals. ¹⁴ Many of the recipient nonprofits then funneled money from these grants to more radical environmentalist advocacy groups. ¹⁵

Project Catalyst

ClimateWorks created Project Catalyst in May 2008 to provide analysis and policy proposals for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). ¹⁶ The UNFCCC sought to strike a new international climate agreement before the 1997 Kyoto Protocol expired in 2012. ¹⁷

ClimateWorks senior advisor and executive board member George Polk organized the project. ¹⁸ At the time, he also advised liberal billionaire George Soros on the investment of $1 billion in private equity related to climate. Soros named him as his representative to the board of the company Powerspan after investing in it in April 2009. ¹⁹ A few weeks after Soros made the investment, Powerspan received $100 million from the Department of Energy. ²⁰

Project Catalyst has received criticism for the approach that it took leading up to the Copenhagen Conference. ²¹ In a March 2009 symposium, representatives from the private, governmental, and nonprofit sectors made their own proposals from which the group produced a synthesis paper. It called for a global agreement that would place “incentives and mandates” on private business to create a low-carbon economy. ²¹ It calculated that to limit global warming to no more than two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial temperatures, global emissions would need to be reduced by 28 percent below projected levels in 2020. ¹⁶

Because Project Catalyst had representatives in nearly every country’s delegation, it wielded enormous influence over negotiations and the proposals that the representatives made. ²¹

During the ClimateWorks’s 2010 Annual Summit, roughly 200 representatives reevaluated the foundation’s methods and strategies. The Oak Foundation played a crucial role in changing ClimateWorks’s direction. Along with other representatives, it pressured the foundation to move away from the top-down approach it had previously taken. The foundation began encouraging its regional partners to take a more active role in the network’s grantmaking strategy and to choose their own projects. Although it still encouraged them to align their giving, but it planned to no longer filter all of the funds through itself on their way to grantees. ²²

International Activity

ClimateWorks has announced a “30 by 30” goal, recommended by the DTW report, aiming to reduce annual world-wide heat-trapping emissions by 30 gigatons by the year 2030. ²³ It plans to reach this goal by focusing specifically on sectors in countries it considers as having the greatest carbon-reduction potential. ¹³ The DTW report recommended environmentalist philanthropy focus its attention on the U.S., the European Union countries, China, and India. ²⁴

As shown in the DTW report, ClimateWorks’ founders see international pressure and activism as key to bringing down these emissions. ²⁵

In 2016, the Packard Foundation gave ClimateWorks a $500,000 grant to implement a “production and protection” deal in Indonesia to link that country’s domestic politics to international and private sector investment. ²⁶

The DTW report also recommended that philanthropists fund media propaganda to turn public opinion in each target country toward its goals. The desired outcome of this was twofold: to spur private investment toward favored alternative forms of energy such as wind and solar by creating demand for it; and to mold the politics of each target country to provide special favors for those forms of energy. ²⁷ It recognized that the goal of forcing a global reduction in energy emissions would be to manipulate the politics in diverse political cultures. The report acknowledged that this required allies with inside knowledge of local politics and cultures. It recommended philanthropists identify potential nonprofit allies already established, and when necessary create new ones. ²⁷

In May 2023, the ClimateWorks Foundation celebrated further partnership between African and Chinese climate representatives through the Africa Renewable Energy Manufacturing Initiative which brought together businesses from Africa and China at the SNEC 16th International Photovoltaic Power Generation and Smart Energy Conference as part of its mission to deliver a green industrial revolution in Africa. Although there has been global concern over China’s growing presence in the African continent and China’s continued pollution and carbon footprint, ClimateWorks and the broader environmentalist philanthropic community celebrated the two regions’ relationship as a boost to the so-called “green industrial revolution.” ²⁸

Drive Electric Campaign

In 2021, ClimateWorks announced the launch of one of its largest climate projects, the “Drive Electric Campaign.” ⁵ The campaign has three central objectives: to have all new city and school bus vehicle sales be electric by 2030, all new passenger vehicle sales be electric by 2035, and all new freight truck vehicle sales be electric by 2040. The aim of the initiative is for the public and private sectors to reach 100% zero-emission road transportation by 2050. ⁴

ClimateWorks claims that this campaign can “eliminate billions of tons of harmful emissions, save hundreds of thousands of lives per year, and prevent millions of cases of respiratory disease caused by pollution from combustion vehicles.” ⁵

Strategy and Impact

To achieve the goal laid forth in the “Drive Electric Campaign,” ClimateWorks has assembled a network of left-wing environmentalist NGOs, international governmental entities, and private businesses to commit to a zero-emissions model by 2050 or sooner. For example, over 100 national, state, and city governments representing nearly one-fifth of global transport demand have committed to 100% emission-free transport. These entities are banding together through pre-existing global climate initiatives like the International ZEV Alliance, Green and Healthy Streets, Global Drive 2 Zero, the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Transition Council, the ZEV Community, and many others to pursue joint action on regulations and incentives to accelerate EV supply, demand, and infrastructure. ^{29 5} ClimateWorks announced – primarily through its $100 million grant from the IKEA Foundation – its Leapfrogging Partnership plan which it believes will increase electric vehicle demand through incremental progress across global transportation markets. ³⁰

Also, ClimateWorks claims that vehicle manufacturers are investing hundreds of billions of dollars to bring new EV products to market and making commitments to shift to 100% zero-emission vehicle production by 2035 or earlier. ClimateWorks also says public utilities boards are investing to enable charging infrastructure that can improve the integration of renewable power generation and provide benefits for all utility customers.  Over 100 companies representing a fleet of over 4.8 million vehicles have committed to 100% electrification by 2030, including Baidu, DHL, Lyft, Leaseplan, IKEA, Ryder, Swiss Post, and the State Bank of India, among others. ⁵

In May 2024, the Biden administration Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a policy proposal to accelerate zero-emission transportation with new clean car standards. The new standards, ClimateWorks claimed, will reduce the U.S. carbon footprint by over 7 billion tons through 2055 and would be “the biggest climate pollution savings from any regulation in U.S. history.” ³¹

Partners

There are several leading partners who have joined ClimateWorks in the global overhaul of infrastructure and transportation necessary to attempt the “Drive Electric Campaign.” These partners include several of the United States’ largest philanthropic entities, including Bloomberg Philanthropies, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Oak Foundation, as well as several prominent environmentalist organizations such as the Clean Air Fund, the Energy Foundation, the African Climate Foundation, and more. ³²

Other implementing partners of the “Drive Electric Campaign” include the Global EV Alliance, the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), Plug In America, the World Resources Institute (WRI), the United Nations Environment Programme, and the World Economic Forum, among others. ³²

Enerdata-ClimateWorks Study

In November 2024, ClimateWorks announced a partnership and joint research project with Enerdata, a left-of-center global climate and energy organization. The joint study will use Brazil’s 2030 commitment to weather-dependent energy as a case study in an effort to understand and optimize the use of weather-dependent energy sources in a near-future energy system. Based on the study, Enerdata will build a tool and deliver indicators considering different economic, social, and climate dimensions and all energy sectors of the economy to promote left-wing climate reform and advocacy across the world through renewable energy. ³³

Funding

Financial Overview

ClimateWorks is one of the largest recipients of climate “philanthropy” in the world. ¹⁴ Between its founding in 2008 and 2018, it received over $1.5 billion and paid out $1 billion in grants to other organizations. ³⁴ In 2022, ClimateWorks reported $330,535,203 in revenue, $355,547,001 in expenses, and $503,138,297 in total assets. ³⁵

Donors to ClimateWorks

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is one of the biggest donors to ClimateWorks. In its founding year (2008), it gave ClimateWorks $481.5 million in seed money; ClimateWorks’ total revenues that year were nearly $491 million. ³⁶ From then until at least 2015, ClimateWorks received more than half of its funding from Hewlett. ³⁷ In November 2024, Hewlett awarded ClimateWorks another $3.5 million over a period of 20 months for support of ClimateWorks efforts to help United States foreign economic and global green industrial policy. ³⁸

From 2008 to 2011, the Packard Foundation gave $185 million. ³⁹ George Soros’s Foundation to Promote Open Society also heavily contributed,³⁷ as did the Energy Foundation and the Sea Change Foundation. ¹⁵

Between 2021 and 2022, the ClimateWorks Foundation’s “Drive Electric Campaign” ⁴⁰ was one of several recipients of grants from The Audacious Project, an initiative of the TED Foundation with the purpose of funding, “bold solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges.” ⁴¹ Other recipients of grants during that period of time include The Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) and Code for America. ⁴²

Another major donor to the “Drive Electric Campaign” was the IKEA Foundation, which awarded ClimateWorks $100 million for the campaign in April 2024 to help countries particularly in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia develop infrastructure to support electric vehicles and reduce their reliance on gasoline for transportation by 2050. ⁴³ MacKenzie Scott, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife, made a financial pledge to the Drive Electric Campaign in March 2022. ⁴⁴

The following are all known donations to ClimateWorks Foundation: ⁴⁵

In 2025 ClimateWorks received multiple grants for various programs from Yield Giving, MacKenzie Scott’s philanthropic initiative started in 2022. Scott is the former wife of Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos and gave over $7.16 billion to various organizations in 2025. ⁴⁶

ClimateWorks Grants

Between 2008 and 2018, the ClimateWorks Foundation paid out over $741 million in grants to other organizations: ⁴⁷

Criticism

India

The government of India blacklisted ClimateWorks in 2014 after that country’s Intelligence Bureau ruled Greenpeace, a ClimateWorks grantee, “a threat to national economic security.” ⁴⁸ The measure forced ClimateWorks to receive permission from India’s Home Ministry before making additional grants into the country. The government alleged that the anti-mining, anti-drilling, and anti-coal protests that ClimateWorks and other Western environmentalist organizations funded had cost the country up to three percent of its GDP. ⁴⁹

European Climate Foundation

ClimateWorks grants around $25 million per year to European projects, but it does not disclose the organizations to which it gives. ⁵⁰ It expanded its activity in Europe after Copenhagen, largely at the behest of its premier European network member, the European Climate Foundation (ECF). ⁵¹ The ECF was founded the same year as ClimateWorks; and like ClimateWorks, it acts as a “foundation of foundations,” ⁵² funneling funds to radical, environmentalist advocacy groups in Europe. ⁵³

Funneling Money

ClimateWorks has also been accused of funneling money to activist groups as a means for liberal billionaires to shield their political donations from taxation by giving to a nonprofit. ⁵⁴ ClimateWorks funds dozens of state and local environmental activist groups with the funds it receives from the Hewlett and Packard Foundations. ³⁶ In 2014, then-U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana), the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee released a report that criticized ClimateWorks Foundation, among others, for facilitating tax-deductible political donations for liberal billionaires during the 2010 and 2012 election cycles. The report showed that ClimateWorks donated nearly $170 million to the Energy Foundation after receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from Hewlett and Packard. ⁵⁴

The report showed that the Energy Foundation later gave $5.7 million to Green Tech, to which ClimateWorks Foundation also gave $1.5 million directly. ⁵⁴ It also showed that Green Tech donated to several “grassroots” environmentalist organizations on the far left during those years’ election cycles. It argued that the climate “propaganda” that these organizations produced provided an echo chamber for its liberal billionaire donors. ⁵⁴ Furthermore, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) included many former employees of these activist organizations. ⁵⁴

Failing Climate Philanthropy

Despite foundations like Hewlett and Packard giving hundreds of millions of dollars toward the effort, many see climate philanthropy as a failing enterprise. Numerous political scientists, including Northeastern University’s Matthew Nisbet and Harvard University Theda Skocpol, blame this on the elitism of the organizations. ^{14 55}

Philanthropy journalist Marc Gunther notes that much of this failure is likely due to the international nature of ClimateWorks’ fund distribution, most of which has been spent outside the U.S. ¹⁴

This international aspect became a point of contention between Harvey and ClimateWorks founders. Harvey considered the foundation successful in its early years because of its funding improved technology in Southeast Asia to reduce emissions. The funders, however, became profoundly disappointed with the failure of the Copenhagen Conference and the U.S. Senate’s failure to pass a “cap and trade” environmentalist taxation bill, and they wanted more wins that would gain national press attention. ⁵⁵

In ClimateWorks’ “Lessons in Leadership,” Harvey blamed many of ClimateWorks’ failures on an early misunderstanding about how much control the organization’s funders would have over their donations.

To the funders, noted Harvey, ClimateWorks was like “a bright shiny object.” Although they wanted to sit in on board meetings and help direct strategy, he argued, “too much help is toxic.” ⁵⁶

Harvey compared the experience negatively to his leadership in the Energy Foundation in the 1990s. ⁵⁷ However, this formed part of a larger environmentalist philanthropic trend in the early 21^st century that the Washington Examiner’s Ron Arnold calls “prescriptive grants.” Funders made out larger grants than they did in the ‘90s, but attached larger strings. ⁵⁸ Harvey claims the tensions created over this issue “ended the model.” ⁵⁶

Harvey also said that the founders unrealistically expected $3 billion over five years to meet the foundation’s 30 by 30 goal. However, ClimateWorks failed to raise any additional funds, and managed only to get other organizations to align their funding with it. ⁵⁹

People

Leadership

Hal Harvey has been an environmentalist foundation official at least since he founded the Energy Foundation in 1991. He worked for the Hewlett Foundation from 2001 to 2008 where he led its energy program, and in 2008, he founded the ClimateWorks Foundation under the auspices of the Hewlett Foundation. He currently leads Energy Innovation, a California-based environmental policy firm. ⁶⁰

Helen Mountford is the president, chief executive officer, and a board member at ClimateWorks. Before joining ClimateWorks, Mountford was the vice president of climate and economics at the World Resources Institute where she led international teams to advance left-wing climate change policies. Mountford was also the program director for the New Climate Economy project, a flagship initiative of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate that provided independent research and policy advice on left-of-center climate, economic, and social issues. She was also previously the deputy director of environment for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Mountford worked at OECD for over 16 years advising governments on environmentalist policy reforms and overseeing work on issues ranging from climate change finance to economics, to the elimination of fossil fuels, and more. She holds a master’s degrees in environmental economics from University College London, and environmental management from the University of Melbourne. She has a B.A. in philosophy and history. ⁶

Board of Directors

Franklin Orr, Jr. is the board chair of the ClimateWorks board of directors. Orr previously served as Under Secretary for Science and Energy at the United States Department of Energy in the Obama administration. Orr has been a member of the Stanford faculty since 1985 and is an emeritus faculty member in the energy science and engineering department at the Doerr School of Sustainability. His research has focused on the interdisciplinary connections necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through Stanford’s Precourt Institute for Energy and Woods Institute for the Environment. Orr was vice chair of the board of directors of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and chaired the advisory panel of the Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation until 2014, rejoined that panel in 2017, and was a foundation board member from 1999 to 2008. ⁷

Nancy Lindborg is the vice chair of the ClimateWorks board. She is also the president and chief executive officer of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, a position she assumed in August 2020. Lindborg is responsible for the overall management of the Foundation and its grantmaking activities, which total over $300 million in grants in years distributed to left-of-center environmental and social causes. She previously served as the president and CEO of the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) from February 2015 through August 2020. Prior to joining USIP, Lindborg served as the assistant administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) at USAID where she led response teams for global crises, including in Syria, the droughts in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, the Arab Spring, as well as the Ebola crisis. She holds a B.A. and an M.A. in English literature from Stanford University and an M.A. in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. ⁸