Jewish billionaire and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged on Thursday to help cover US financial commitments to the United Nations climate body after President Donald Trump said he would eliminate the funding and withdraw from the global Paris climate agreement.
The new Republican president is repeating a policy decision he made at the start of his previous term in office in 2017, which similarly triggered a move by Bloomberg to uphold the country’s international climate obligations.
“From 2017 to 2020, during a period of federal inaction, cities, states, businesses, and the public rose to the challenge to uphold our nation’s commitments — and now, we are ready to do it again,” Bloomberg said in a statement posted by his philanthropic arm Thursday.
Money from Bloomberg and other unspecified US climate donors will help fund the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which runs annual global climate negotiations and tracks countries’ greenhouse gas emissions.
Bloomberg, among the richest people in the world, made his fortune in financial information and media. He has long been dedicated to fighting climate change and serves as UN special envoy focused on the issue. He is also a prolific philanthropist, having donated billions of dollars to a wide range of causes.
Though he is not known for emphasizing Jewish philanthropy, he has become one of the largest individual donors to Israeli charities since the start of the war in Gaza. He gave $44 million to Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service and committed $28 million to help rehabilitate Israeli communities targeted by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack.
Growing concerns
Trump’s positions on climate, energy, and the environment put him at odds with the growing concern about these issues among Jewish communal organizations in the United States. The most recent sign of the wave of is the first-ever donation by the Schusterman family foundation to a nonprofit focused on climate action.
Concern about the climate crisis has been especially salient amid the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, whose severity, experts say, can be linked to increasingly erratic patterns of rainfall and drought.
The fires were highlighted in the announcement of the Jewish Funders Network of a workshop for Jewish donors who want to focus on climate, and in an essay by the head of the Jewish climate group Dayenu suggesting arenas where it might still be possible to make a difference despite Trump’s installation in the White House.