The McKnight Foundation welcomes the global climate agreement reached by nearly 200 nations. Civil society, businesses, investors, cities, and states all provided important momentum leading up to the landmark Paris accord. The remarkable unanimity displayed at the summit makes it clear we need to act quickly on the risks climate change poses to our social, economic, and planetary well-being.
McKnight is committed to supporting climate solutions through grantmaking and investing. Institutional investors, including McKnight, see climate change as a material risk to our portfolios, threatening the returns we depend upon to support hundreds of nonprofits working across our state and beyond. McKnight was among 400 investors representing $24 trillion in assets who signed the Global Investor Statement calling for an ambitious agreement. The Paris agreement contains many market signals that investors have been seeking, and it will spur investments that will continue to drive down the cost and expand the reach of existing low-carbon technologies as well as activate new waves of innovation.
Our home state of Minnesota has already demonstrated significant climate leadership across all sectors — state and local government; our private sector, including leading Fortune 500 corporations and electric utilities; and nonprofits, consumers, and citizens across the entire state.
The promise made in Paris is a powerful testament to what can be accomplished when we come together. Now we need robust and ongoing collective action to deliver on that promise.
