The Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment (or simply Grantham Institute) is an environmentalist research institute at Imperial College London, in England. It was launched in February 2007 with a multi-million-pound donation from the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, a private grantmaking foundation based in Boston, Massachusetts that provides funding for environmentalist organizations. ^{1 2 3}

The institute is one of seven institutes affiliated with Imperial College London and focuses on developing and supporting climate and environmental research. It states that its vision is a “sustainable, resilient, zero-carbon society.” ⁴

Background

The Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment, commonly referred to as the Grantham Institute (not to be confused with the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, which is housed at the London School of Economics and Political Science) is an environmentalist research institute at Imperial College London, in England. ^{1 5}

The Grantham Institute was launched in February 2007 via a multi-million-pound donation from the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, a private grantmaking foundation based in Boston, Massachusetts that provides funding for environmental organizations. ^{2 3}

The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment also supports Imperial College’s partner institutes, including the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the LSE; Divecha Centre for Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India; and the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures at Sheffield University in England. ²

The Grantham Institute is one of seven institutes affiliated with Imperial College London and focuses on developing and supporting climate and environmental research. It states that its vision is a “sustainable, resilient, zero-carbon society.” ⁴

The Grantham Institute co-chairs the United Kingdom Universities Climate Network, a group of over 90 universities and research centers across the U.K., that focus on environmentalist research. ⁶

Affiliated Organizations

The Grantham Institute funds World Weather Attribution, a left-of-center environmentalist research organization that uses weather observations to attribute extreme weather events to climate change. The organization is partnered with Imperial College London and is also funded by the European Climate Foundation, a left-of-center nonprofit that funds climate change-orientated advocacy organizations in Europe, and the Bezos Earth Fund, a left-of-center charitable project launched by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in February 2020. ^{7 8 9}

People

The advisory board for the Grantham Institute formally meets once a year and members can serve on the board for a four-year period, which can be renewed once. ¹⁰

Members of the advisory board include Jeremy Grantham, the principal funder of the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, and his wife Hannelore. Jeremy Grantham is best known for predicting market corrections over the years and funding major environmentalist groups across the world. ¹¹

Other members of the advisory board include Joan MacNaughton, chair of the Climate Group, an international network of corporations and other groups that advocate environmentalist policies; Carter Roberts, president and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund, an international non-governmental organization that focuses on conservation and environmentalist efforts; and Nigel Topping, former CEO of the We Mean Business Coalition, a European-American coalition of advocacy groups that aims to get private business to take action on climate change and achieve net zero carbon emissions and to push governments to adopt environmentalist policies. ^{10 12 13}

Funding

The Inflexion Foundation, a London-based investment organization, provided a grant of £390,000 (approximately $493,299) to the Grantham Institute in 2024. ¹⁴

The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment granted the Grantham Institute $2 million in 2017. ¹⁵

1. “Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment.” Imperial College London. February 20, 1112. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/.
2. “The Grantham Foundation.” Imperial College London. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/about-us/the-grantham-foundation/.
3. “Grantham Foundation.” Philanthropy. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.granthamfoundation.org/philanthropy/.
4. “About us.” Imperial College London. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/about-us/.
5. “About the Institute.” Grantham Research Institute on climate change and . Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/about/about-the-institute/.
6. “Policy.” Imperial College London. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/policy/.
7. “World Weather Attribution – Exploring the contribution of climate change to extreme weather events.” Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/.
8. “World Weather Attribution.” Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/about/.
9. Gamboa, Glenn. “Bezos plans to spend $10 billion by 2030 on climate change.” AP News. March 9, 2021. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://apnews.com/general-news-bee1aea9cffc377400048dcb5b7405f0.
10. “Advisory board.” Imperial College London. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/about-us/advisory-board/.
11. Murdoch, Adrian. “Philanthropy’s missed opportunity.” Campden FB. June 12, 2018. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://campdenfb.com/article/philanthropy-s-missed-opportunity
12. “About us.” Climate Group. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.theclimategroup.org/about-us.
13. “We Mean Business Coalition – About.” We Mean Business Coalition. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/about/.
14. “The Inflexion Foundation announces two year grant for Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment.” Inflexion. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.inflexion.com/news-insights-events/press-releases/2024/the-inflexion-foundation-announces-two-year-grant-for-grantham-institute-climate-change-and-the-environment/.
15. “Environment/Climate Change Prospects.” Accessed December 2, 2024. https://frcp.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/environment_climate_change_prospects_-_additional_prospects_1.pdf.