At the Sustainable Energy for All Forum, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions, announced that it will invest 242 million dollars to accelerate the transition to clean energy in developing countries. These countries are expected to have a rapid increase in power demand and have a great deal of untapped potential for solar, wind, and other forms of renewable energy capacity.
The list of nations in which Bloomberg Philanthropies is actively working on energy transition initiatives has been expanded to include seven new nations as well as the European Union. Bloomberg is responding to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' urgent call to introduce renewable energy at speed and scale, end coal-fired power generation, and stop subsidies for fossil fuels by announcing the first phase of a pledge made at COP26 in Glasgow to help close a quarter of all coal plants around the world. This announcement is part of Bloomberg's pledge to help close a quarter of all coal plants around the world.
Michael R. Bloomberg, the founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and the UN Secretary-Special General's Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions, stated that "We've seen that it's possible to increase access to affordable power, improve public health, and fight climate change all at the same time – and to make progress quickly in each area."
Bloomberg initiatives:
More than a decade ago, Mike Bloomberg began supporting philanthropic initiatives in Africa that aim to improve public health, women's economic development and government innovation. These initiatives include preventing malaria, improving maternal health, improving road safety, combating tobacco use, preventing obesity, preventing drownings and improving health data. More than 450,000 women have been enrolled in the Bloomberg Philanthropies Women's Economic Development program in Sub-Saharan Africa since 2007 in vocational training programs designed to help them become economically independent.
In 2006, the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Maternal and Reproductive Health was launched with the goal of improving maternal health in rural Tanzania (the Tanzanian government took over the successful program in 2019). The initiative also supports organizations in Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Uganda that work to improve access to family planning and other reproductive health services for their populations. Since its launch in South Africa in 2014, the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa has produced more than 560 graduates from across Africa, aiming to improve the quality of financial journalism in the continent. With the help of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, tobacco control policies and programs have been strengthened in dozens of African countries.
Road traffic injuries are the eighth leading cause of death worldwide, and our Global Road Safety Initiative has worked in countries such as Ghana and Ethiopia. The Bloomberg Philanthropies' drowning prevention efforts have expanded to Uganda and Ghana, where drowning is the third leading cause of unintentional injury death. There were 15 total winners of the 2021-2022 Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Mayors Challenge, a worldwide competition that supports and spreads the most promising ideas from cities, including Freetown, Sierra Leone; Kigali, Rwanda; and Kumasi, Ghana. To simultaneously improve public health and combat climate change, while also making rapid progress in each of these areas.
For more information: https://bloombg.org/3NuNCVb