Bellagio Bulletin/

Bellagio Bulletin: December 2022

When it comes to climate justice, The Rockefeller Foundation is taking urgent steps to support and protect our planet. Globally, we are on a path to 2.7 degrees of warming, resulting in unbearably harsh living conditions that will affect us all, especially the most poor and vulnerable. We can’t afford to let that happen if we want to avoid the consequences of poverty, hunger, migration, displacement, and disease. As the President of The Rockefeller Foundation, Dr. Rajiv J. Shah said at the 27th Climate Change Conference (COP27); “that is why we are here to keep 1.5 alive.

As many prepare to advance action following COP27, we are excited to share the work that the Bellagio network has been doing to address climate change. Dr. Carlos Nobre shares highlights from his research and advocacy on Amazon Rainforest preservation. The Arsht-Rock Foundation shares why naming heatwaves is a fundamental step in tackling their devastating effects. Thanks to Dr. D. James Baker and Dr. Gary Richard’s research, you’ll discover how satellites can help us reduce the carbon in the atmosphere. You’ll see that Jim Salzman discovered a new financial instrument for incentivizing landowners to be more sustainable.

Beyond former residents working to address climate change, you’ll find out how Jessica Bruder’s time at Bellagio led to a Best Picture win at the Academy Awards. You’ll also read about how Bellagio was catalytic for the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, an organization that empowers historic spaces to preserve traumatic cultural memory.

These incredible projects and outcomes unfolded, in part, because of Bellagio. We hope that you are inspired and motivated after reading this Bellagio Bulletin.

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In The News

  • Barron’s Reports on The Rockefeller Foundation’s Climate Justice Approach

    Climate change threatens to undo The Rockefeller Foundation’s philanthropic work of the last century. As reported in Barron’s magazine on 6th December 2022, the foundation is prioritizing climate justice along with its other philanthropic actions in the fields of food, energy, health, and equity.
  • New Energy Transition Accelerator co-designed by The Rockefeller Foundation

    At COP27, The Rockefeller Foundation, the U.S. State Department, and the Bezos Earth Fund announced their plan to design a new energy transition accelerator. This plan will most greatly benefit developing and emerging economies, as they are the most in need of clean energy investment.
  • Global Commission for Climate Overshoot

    On the 16th of May 2022, a global Commission was launched to strategize on reducing global warming’s threat to the planet. The ‘Climate Overshoot Commission,’ who first met at the Bellagio Center in June will present adaptive and integrative climate justice strategies at the UN Climate Change Summit in 2023.
  • Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP)

    Launched during COP26, the GEAPP has been striving to bring power (in every sense of the word) to as many people as possible. Learn about the various ways the alliance is combating the inequities of energy poverty and what they discussed at Bellagio this September.
  • DemocracyNext

    In April 2022, thought partners gathered at the Bellagio Center. The result was the Open Democracy Institute’s launch of DemocracyNext, a non-profit, non-partisan research and action institute that aims to advance a new paradigm for deliberative democracy with everyday citizens.
  • Green Narratives

    Conclusions from research conducted by the Brookings Institution are lifting up voices from the developing world in the global climate narrative. A group of experts gathered at Bellagio in June to exchange ideas and advance an upcoming book of recommendations.
  • World Data Lab

    The World Data Lab launched the World Emissions Clock at COP27. The lab harnesses big data to enhance progress on the global sustainable development goals, having previously launched the World Poverty (2017) and World Hunger (2020) clocks - all discussed during convenings at Bellagio.
  • 17 Rooms

    Launched in September 2018, 17 Rooms aims to advance the economic, social, and environmental priorities embedded in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As outlined in the linked report, each ‘room’ represents a working group focusing on democratizing the Sustainable Development Goals; making them universally accessible.

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