MISSION
Our
Our Part Foundation funds initiatives that fight the Climate Crisis and protect Democracy for all. Amplifying our impact by engaging other donors, we focus on movement building, advocacy and direct action.
We never solicit or accept funding for our own work.
The Climate Crisis + Our Energy Future
The IPPC report detailed how the global community has a critical window before 2030 to pivot away from a high carbon fossil fuel-based economy and decarbonize our grid. The fight to build a clean energy economy or to continue burning fossil fuels will determine whether we literally save the planet or cannot.
In May of 2021, the International Energy Agency, a powerful fossil fuel advocacy group, released their report “Net Zero by 2050, a Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector". The report says that the path to net zero by 2050 is narrow but doable. However, it clearly states that we will only get to net zero if we stop mining and drilling for new fossil fuels.
The intense build-out of proposed new fossil fuel infrastructure - fracking wells, pipelines, new gas plants, LNG export terminals, petrochemicals, and plastics - would lock us into a fossil fuel world for 40 more years. Fossil fuel expansion will preclude our ability to keep global temperature increase below 1.5c (2.7 f).
THE CLIMATE CRISIS
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report (IPCC, 2018 detailed how increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from human activity, (carbon dioxide and methane), are setting us up for extreme and destructive weather patterns. The international community must rapidly reduce its carbon emissions to prevent our global temperature from rising more than 1.5c; any higher than that, we risk irreparable damage to our planet. We must reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The report makes it clear that weaning off of fossil fuels is critical to reaching this goal.
The damage from climate change has already begun. In recent years we’ve seen Hurricanes Irma, Michael, Harvey and Dorian and others, flatten or flood entire communities in the Bahamas, Florida, Puerto Rico and Texas. In the summer of 2020, over 6 million acres burned down in California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado. The poorest communities, largely those of color, lack the resources to recover and rebuild from these disasters.
The back-to-back destruction from hurricanes Eta and Iota in Central America displaced millions of Honduran and Guatemalan citizens. The climate crisis has destroyed their homes and food supplies. As dangerous as it is, migration to the U.S. is the only option for these people.
The United States is the second-highest carbon emitter in the world and the highest carbon emitter per capita in the world. America is historically the highest carbon emitter ever. Climate change is driven by the greenhouse gas emissions that our country has benefited from the most. Americans who have benefited the least from our high-carbon lifestyle are suffering the most.
Unfortunately, only 2% of all philanthropy goes to protect the environment or fight the climate crisis. Meanwhile, $6 billion a year - much of it in philanthropy - is spent globally on climate denial and disinformation campaigns. Our Part works to educate new donors on the reality of the climate crisis and engage them in philanthropy and advocacy for rapid solutions.
It is up to those of us most privileged to make sure that our way of life doesn’t destroy the lives of others, nor the planet itself.