"We've been meeting potential philanthropic investors," said President of the Foundation, Paul Brest, in London on Friday.
LONDON (Reuters) - Trustees of a $9 billion endowment fund founded by the late William Hewlett, of Hewlett Packard, say they want to spend tens of millions of dollars a year fighting climate change as part of a bigger fund.
"We've been meeting potential philanthropic investors," said President of the Foundation, Paul Brest, in London on Friday.
"We're committing to a long-term grant-making project for climate change. There's a lot of initiatives by U.S. philanthropy, but we haven't seen something going where the carbon is, working on policy in a systematic way."
Brest hoped that, alongside other investors, the climate fund would eventually swell to some $500-$600 million in grant funding a year.
!ADVERTISEMENT!He expected contributors to set up a U.S.-based organization which would give grants to at least six established, independent institutions worldwide, probably in the U.S., Europe, India, China and Brazil.
The umbrella organization should launch this year.
"It's a fairly urgent problem," said Brest, adding that the Chinese arm of the U.S.-based Energy Foundation would be a likely beneficiary.
Contributors would earmark money to improve energy efficiency in city planning and building design, and to advise policymakers.
"(We'd like to) work with the United States on capping emissions, some form of trading scheme," Brest said.
"Bill Hewlett was concerned with the environment from the beginning. This has to be the mega environmental challenge that threatens everything else."
The Hewlett Foundation gives grants in projects to improve development, education and the environment in the United States and worldwide.
(Reporting by Gerard Wynn, writing by Michael Szabo)
