Ikea Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation teams up to fight climate change

The Ikea Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation on Monday said they will join forces to set up a USD 1 billion global platform to fight climate change and energy poverty.

"The platform – launching this year – aims to empower 1 billion people with distributed renewable energy (DRE). This is renewable energy generated from sources such as mini-grid and off-grid solutions, located near the point of use, rather than centralized sources like power plants," Ikea Foundation said in a statement.

According to Per Heggenes, CEO IKEA Foundation "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 recognize that the current approach is not delivering the impact the world needs in the time that we have".

Rajiv J Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation said big, bold, and pioneering collaboration and investment is required not only for the short term, but also the long term, to galvanize a better future.