IKEA Foundation joins forces with Rockefeller Foundation to tackle energy poverty and climate change
The IKEA Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation will set up a USD 1 billion global platform to fight climate change and energy poverty.
The aim of the platform, due to launch later this year, is to reduce 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions and empower 1 billion people with distributed renewable energy. This is renewable energy that comes from sources such as mini-grid, rather than central sources like power plants.
The new platform will help countries to leapfrog to renewable energy, help tackle energy poverty and aid recovery from COVID-19. With 800 million people worldwide lacking electricity, and a further 2.8 billion having unreliable access, the aim is to deliver clean and reliable power to them. It will be run as a public charity to manage a concerted effort to rapidly channel development funds to life-changing projects on the ground.
“If global energy consumption doesn’t change from fossil fuels to renewable energy, we will not meet the Paris Agreement ambitions and millions of families will be left behind in poverty. We need to be honest and recognise that the current approach is not delivering the impact the world needs in the time that we have,” said Per Heggenes, CEO IKEA Foundation.
The IKEA Foundation shares the IKEA vision to create a better everyday life for the many people. It is an independent philanthropy focused on creating brighter lives on a liveable planet through its grant giving efforts. It is funded by INGKA Foundation, owner of Ingka Group.
Today’s announcement is part of the recent EUR 1 billion commitment the IKEA Foundation made towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
For further information, journalists and media professionals can contact us at press.office@ingka.com or by calling +46 70 993 6376
Ingka Group (Ingka Holding B.V. and its controlled entities) is one of 12 different groups of companies that own and operate IKEA retail under franchise agreements with Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Ingka Group has three business areas: IKEA Retail, Ingka Investments and Ingka Centres. Ingka Group is a strategic partner in the IKEA franchise system, operating 389 IKEA stores in 32 countries. These IKEA stores had 706 million visits during FY20 and 3.6 billion visits to IKEA.com. Ingka Group operates business under the IKEA vision - to create a better everyday life for the many people by offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible can afford it.
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