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IKEA Foundation in September launched a four-year, US$20-million scheme that aims to help make energy transitions in Indonesia, South Africa and Vietnam fair and benefit communities – which it hopes other charitable organisations will join.
“We want at least US$100 million over the next five years,” said Sahba Chauhan, programme manager for climate engagement at the IKEA Foundation in the Hague.
The new initiative – a joint venture with the US-based ClimateWorks Foundation – plans to support workers facing closure of coal mines and power plants by facilitating talks at local and national levels on how to achieve a “just transition”.
Chauhan said finance would be provided to pilot projects, businesses and entrepreneurs that are creating alternative industries like renewables, as well as funding for civil society groups already working locally on a clean energy transition.
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There’s no question to me that we will have to embrace a diversity of resources from a range of different places.
Kumi Naidoo, senior advisor, Community Arts Network
“We are focusing on areas where national governments have already mandated coal shutdowns and phase-downs,” she said.
The IKEA Foundation’s new funding follows pledges made at the COP26 UN climate summit in 2021, where it joined the US$1.5-billion Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet.
At COP27 in 2022, philanthropic groups committed an additional US$500 million over three years to accelerate a just energy transition in low- and middle-income countries.
Under the 2015 Paris Agreement to tackle global warming, about 195 countries agreed to slash their emissions in coming decades, reaching net-zero in the second half of the century.
But most developing countries are still reliant on fossil fuels for the electricity supplies they need to grow their economies and cut poverty – and many are struggling with high levels of debt, which has pushed them to call on rich nations and private donors to fund their switch to cleaner energy.
Worldwide, the renewables sector is expanding as investment grows – especially in solar power – boosting capacity, production and employment opportunities.
But the shift away from coal, oil and gas will impact about 32 million people working in high-carbon industries, according to the IKEA Foundation.
Clear and detailed plans to re-skill those workers and offer them new sources of income will be crucial to limit the economic, social and political impacts, it added in a statement.
“This initiative is a seed that we’re hopeful will grow into other regions of the world,” said Jason Anderson, a senior programme director at the nonprofit ClimateWorks Foundation.
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