When it comes to non-profit environmental groups, many of us are familiar with Greenpeace because of its activist actions from time to time which capture the attention of mainstream media and the authorities. However, in both Canada and the U.S., there are numerous other lesser known groups that have concentrated on more specific environmental issues. For example, in the U.S. you have such groups as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), The Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, the Environmental Working Group, the ClimateWorks Foundation and the Union of Concerned Scientists. For a long time, such groups focused on particular environmental issues such as nuclear power safety, environmental toxins, and nearly extinct wildlife or threatened species in North America. However, in recent years there has been a significant shift in donor contributions to nonprofits fighting climate change, leaving some of the both nations’ biggest environmental organizations facing critical budgetary shortfalls in existing programs.
According to a survey released in September by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, global spending to fight climate change by environmental groups and other nonprofits reached $8 billion (U.S.) in 2021, most of it in the U.S. and Canada. Reportedly, leaders of some legacy environmental groups now largely agree that climate change, given its wide range of increasing global effects, is the top priority. Since these organizations depend extensively on funding contributions from different sources, including from some of the world’s richest individuals, they have had to realign their goals to reflect policies and practices designed to tackle specific concerns around climate change. This also means increasing support for government and industry initiatives promoting green technologies, including those related to solar, wind and thermo energy projects. Even nuclear energy appears to be making a comeback as an additional means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For example, the NRDC is eliminating its longstanding program promoting nuclear safety and cleanup as its donors focus on the climate crisis.
Facing unsustainable budget deficits, some of the largest non-profit environmental organizations are being forced to announce layoffs among their staffs. This will result in the lost of a good deal of environmental expertise and program support for some time to come. In addition, younger donors now tend to increasingly support those initiatives targeting climate change. After all, younger people really view that climate change is the most immediate challenge affecting their lives in so many ways.
The shift in priorities is also reflected in government policy, with climate change winning the lion’s share of some agencies’ budget increases. The number one strategic goal among declared priorities in the U.S. Environment Protection Agency’s list of seven priorities in its five-year strategic plan is to tackle the “Climate Crisis”. The use of the term “crisis” is an important recognition of our need to focus on climate change sooner rather than later. Interestingly in Canada, formally known as Environment Canada, the department’s name was recently changed to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). ECCC is the now the department of the Government of Canada responsible for coordinating environmental policies and programs, as well as preserving and enhancing the natural environment and renewable resources.
Environmental groups, like governments, have no choice but to adapt their policies aimed at tackling the consequences of climate change, both short-term and long-term. There is only so much donor funding available in both countries, and failure to adapt could result in their eventual demise. Somehow, marketing of existing programs and policies have to be reoriented to tie into climate change issues in some way. No organization is immune from the current shifts in peoples’ priorities in the environmental field. Unfortunately, failure to effectively adapt could eventually mean their very extinction.
FROLITICKS 