Billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg has now committed more than $3bn to climate-related causes over the past decade, making him one of the world’s largest private donors to initiatives fighting climate change.
That total includes a recent commitment of nearly $270m linked to two initiatives around last year’s UN COP30 summit, analysis by the Financial Times found.
The funding, provided through Bloomberg Philanthropies alongside personal donations, comes at a time when international climate efforts are facing growing financial strain, particularly as US backing has become more uncertain.
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That uncertainty has been reinforced by a range of new policies announced by Donald Trump since he returned to office in January 2025. Having long rejected the scientific consensus on climate change and repeatedly attacked renewable energy as a ‘scam’, Trump has moved quickly to scale back Washington’s involvement in global climate efforts.
This shift became formal on Monday, when the US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement came into effect. In a memorandum issued in January, Trump said the US would pull out of a range of international climate groups, framing the move as a way to save taxpayers’ money and avoid funding initiatives he says run against US interests.
As the US steps back from climate negotiations, however, private funding and donations such as Bloomberg’s could begin to play an increasingly important role.
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Billionaires spending on climate efforts
With Trump’s return to the White House, many major donors are wary of drawing the administration’s attention.
While some are stepping up to fill the gap – the Rockefeller Foundation, for example, plans to spend $1bn over five years on climate initiatives – others have pulled back or scaled down.
Bill Gates has urged a rethink of global spending, arguing that vaccines deserve more attention alongside climate, while Jeff Bezos’s Earth Fund allowed its $18m, three-year grant to the Science Based Targets Initiative to expire. Sir Christopher Hohn’s Children’s Investment Fund Foundation has also stopped funding US green groups.
In the meantime, Bloomberg has continued to cement his reputation as a steady backer of climate initiatives, particularly those tackling air pollution, methane emissions from gas production, coal use and ocean protection.
For the billionaire businessman, environmental action and economic growth do not have to be in conflict. ‘Growing economics and protecting climate go hand in hand,’ he has said repeatedly.
A rational wealth strategy for UHNWs
For Francesco Grosoli, CEO at CMB Monaco, climate change is no longer simply an ESG issue but a core financial risk capable of shaping long-term wealth, he told Spear’s. Treating it strategically, he said, has become essential for protecting assets and maintaining value across generations.
Grosoli explained that billionaires are now able to move faster than governments, particularly when it comes to backing new technologies, building infrastructure or funding early-stage solutions where public money is slow or fragmented.
But simply writing large cheques is not enough, he noted, emphasising that philanthropy without a clear strategy rarely delivers meaningful results. He highlighted the importance of combining rigorous governance, long-term commitment and a focus on outcomes rather than visibility.
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In his view, ‘the moment has come to transform climate concern from symbol into reality, from intentions to tangible outcomes,’ he told Spear’s.
Sebastian Goeres, a wealth manager to UHNWs and the CEO of LGT Middle East, shares Grosoli’s view that climate philanthropy can be a rational wealth strategy. ‘Wealthy individuals and families […] should recognise that climate giving is a form of strategic philanthropy,’ he told Spear’s.
Goeres added that wealthy business families can bring an entrepreneurial mindset to both their investments and operations, aligning with credible net-zero pathways and using their ability to take higher-risk positions ‘to turn climate challenges into opportunities for innovation’, he said.
