The scientific consensus: key findings and projections
The evidence is clear: human influence has warmed the climate at a rate that is unprecedented in at least the past 2,000 years.
This is driven by greenhouse gases (GHGs), primarily carbon dioxide (CO₂) from burning fossil fuels and deforestation, and other “super pollutants” like methane.
Global average temperature
The goal established by the 2015 Paris Agreement is to limit global warming to well below 2°C, and preferably to 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels. Achieving this requires major global transitions, including cutting global carbon pollution in half by 2030 and reaching close to “net-zero” by mid-century.
Current national commitments are insufficient. It seems clear that we have now broken through the 1.5 degree threshold. If CO₂ emission rates continue at the current pace, the world is expected to be locked into 1.5°C of warming in just seven years, and to 2°C warming within 25 years.
This chart shows the magnitude of the carbon emission needed to keep warming at or below 1.5°C.
Source: Climate Action Tracker and ClimateWorks Foundation, based on data available as of April 2023
Note that in the same period that medium-term outlooks have deteriorated, longer-term ones have improved, relative to the most negative projections of 15-20 years ago. That’s testament to positive change that has been accomplished in the last twenty years, and a reminder that philanthropy, public action, governments and the private sector can together make a positive difference.
Global and Local Impacts
The consequences of climate change are already being seen in increasingly frequent and devastating floods, droughts, heat waves, and wildfires.
Food security and extreme weather
High global temperatures increase the intensity of droughts. Yields of major crops are estimated to decline by 3.1 to 7.4% for every degree of global mean temperature increase.
Biodiversity loss
Climate change is a major cause of biodiversity loss. It seems fairly clear that what we might think of as the sixth mass extinction in Earth’s history is already underway. Ecosystems essential for human life are highly vulnerable: 70–90% of tropical coral reefs will disappear even if warming is limited to 1.5°C.
Wildfires
Climate change is a driver of larger, more frequent and more intense wildfires by creating hotter, drier conditions, longer fire seasons, and more fuel. (The catastrophic Los Angeles fires of 2025 directly caused 31 deaths. The American Medical Association estimated that the fires contributed to at least 440 additional deaths, caused by smoke-induced respiratory disease, heart failure and disruption to critical healthcare services) .
The Costs of Inaction
Climate change is not just an environmental concern; it is a human issue that harms health, economies, and global stability. Continued unfettered emissions and destruction of nature will intensify harm to people and the planet.
By recognizing the science and the immense human and economic consequences of delay, philanthropists have an opportunity and an obligation to step up – especially at a moment when the US government is faltering on climate.
Reducing carbon: what and why
To ensure a sustainable future and avoid the worst outcomes of climate change, the world must achieve as close as possible to “net-zero” by mid-century.
Net-zero is the point where there is an overall balance between greenhouse gases (GHGs) produced and those taken out of the atmosphere. The choices made during the next decade will be decisive, with enduring consequences. Limiting global warming to below 2°C will require major transitions across the global economy, including how energy is generated, food is grown, and goods are manufactured.
Breakdown of global carbon emissions by sector
Key to the Jewish Guide to Climate Philanthropy is the understanding that
we’re not obligated to complete this task – but neither can we desist from it.
The climate crisis needs every government, every company, every city.
Our task – as Jewish leaders – is to make sure that we’re doing all that we can, to improve our own performance, and to punch above our weight.
For so many of us, that’s a core aspect of what it means to be Jewish.
Eliminating Emission Sources: A Sectoral Approach
Mitigation requires sharply reducing emissions from each of the economy’s primary sources of GHGs. In 2024, total human-caused GHG emissions amounted to 53.2 gigatonnes (Gt) of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂eq), a 1.3% increase from 2023. Success requires focused action across the five major emitting sectors.
Project Drawdown is a widely used and respected tool to provide data and analysis about where emissions come from and what the best solutions are for reducing them.
( 1 ) Energy (33% of global emissions):
This is the largest sector, stemming from producing fossil fuels and burning oil, coal or gas for heat, transport and electricity. Since renewable energy is foundational to decarbonizing other sectors, solutions focus heavily here. Key strategies include creating enabling environments for renewables at national, local, communal and institutional levels, supporting technology breakthroughs and building renewable generation capacity.
( 2 ) Industry (24% of global emissions):
Key strategies involve transforming manufacturing processes to emit less carbon, promoting policies to drive clean energy for these materials, and opposing the new construction of polluting infrastructure in major industrial sectors.
( 3 ) Food, Agriculture, Forestry, and Land Use (22% of global emissions):
This sector is driven by deforestation, unsustainable agricultural practices (like excessive tilling and fertilizer use), food waste, and meat-intensive diets (due to methane from cows). Mitigation efforts include encouraging shifts toward plant-based proteins, incentivizing farming methods that benefit nature (like cover crops), and supporting technologies and policies that eliminate food waste.
( 4 ) Transport (15% of global emissions):
Solutions center on promoting the uptake of electric vehicles (cars, buses, trucks) and accelerating cleaner fuels for shipping and aviation.
( 5 ) Buildings (6% of global emissions):
Direct emissions come from gas-fired furnaces, boilers, hot-water heaters, and refrigerants. Strategic mitigation involves working with officials to require new buildings to be carbon neutral, and retrofitting existing buildings by eliminating on-site emission sources like gas appliances.
As a philanthropist you can have impact in any of these areas in quite different ways, depending on your own interests.
- You can support non-profits doing work in these areas;
- You can work on advocacy, locally or nationally;
- You can invest in companies seeking to make a difference.
In the Jewish community, Adamah’s Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition now involves more than five hundred Jewish institutions who are committing to work on these issues. This is a unique and vital way to address climate mitigation whilst strengthening the Jewish community.
Protecting Nature and Driving Innovation
Effective mitigation requires not only eliminating emission sources but also protecting natural carbon absorbers and developing new technologies.
Addressing super-pollutants and natural sinks
Carbon dioxide makes up the large majority of greenhouse gases emitted, and it can remain in the atmosphere for up to 1,000 years. Some “super-pollutants” (gases like methane and hydrofluorocarbon, known as HFCs) stay in the atmosphere for much less time, so curbing their emissions is proportionately one of the fastest ways to reduce warming in the near-term. Methane, which has more than 80 times the warming impact of CO₂, is primarily emitted from the energy, agriculture, and waste sectors.
Philanthropists have pledged $200 million to create the Global Methane Hub (GMH), which supports breakthrough technologies like the Methane Alert Response System, an innovative satellite tool that detects major methane leaks in the energy sector.
Globally, the natural world provides critical storage capacity, having absorbed approximately half of all human-caused CO₂ emissions since the Industrial Revolution in vegetation, soils, and oceans.
Land sinks
Protecting ecosystems, such as forests and peatlands, that absorb and store carbon is vital. Depending on where you are, philanthropic support for the protection of local eco-systems can be a high-impact strategy.
On a global scale, at a time when tropical forests are losing the equivalent of ten football fields of trees a minute, philanthropists have supported the transfer of 175 million hectares of tropical forests to indigenous peoples for protection and preservation.
Oceans and coastal sinks
These natural systems include mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass beds (collectively often known as “blue carbon”) which store carbon and provide crucial co-benefits, such as protecting people from storm surges and coastal erosion. The Nature Conservancy, for example, does coastal resilience work in the Gulf of Mexico, restoring “blue carbon” ecosystems like mangroves, oyster reefs, and seagrass meadows, which buffer against storm surges and capture carbon.
Technological solutions and carbon removal
Risk-tolerant philanthropic capital plays a crucial role in funding research and innovation in nascent areas, such as fusion energy, net-zero emissions aviation or tracking super-pollutants. Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technologies will likely be needed to achieve global net-zero targets because legacy emissions remain in the atmosphere for so long. CDR technologies capture carbon directly from the air and store it permanently. Philanthropic funding can help accelerate such technologies and ensure their safety.
The TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation (Pescadero, CA)
The TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation (TKREF), founded by entrepreneur and environmentalist Tom Steyer, is dedicated to regenerative agriculture and ranching, which is an approach to farming that provides nutritious food while actively restoring the environment. Their core activities include:
- Regenerative Ranching: They employ land management practices such as managed grazing, building healthy soil, and biodiversity stewardship. These methods are designed to optimize water cycling, climate stability, economic livelihoods, and animal welfare.
- Data and Monitoring: For over a decade, the ranch has heavily invested in monitoring its landscapes and documenting its grazing decisions to demonstrate the benefits of regenerative rangeland management.
- Fork to Farm Partnerships: They work to influence societal eating habits to help accelerate the broader adoption of regenerative agriculture.
- Education and Gathering: TKREF brings people together to catalyze the transition to a regenerative agricultural system through peer-to-peer learning, workshops, and meaningful conversations with producers and food innovators.
Ultimately, their mission is to provide healthy food from working lands in a way that regenerates the planet and inspires others to take action.
Climate security:
adapting to a changing world
Climate change is no longer in the future; it is here, now shaping daily life.
So we must now also invest in climate security – adapting for changes that are happening now. Rising temperatures, intensifying storms, water scarcity, and climate migration are security risks. Safeguarding water, food and health is a strategic human necessity.
Water security and resilient infrastructure
Secure freshwater supplies
Water shortage is a critical climate threat. Rehabilitating aging systems, reducing leakage, improving groundwater management, and expanding renewable-powered desalination are crucial. Nature-based solutions such as wetland restoration reduce drought and flood risk.
Flood and storm protection
As sea levels rise and rainfall extremes grow, cities need better drainage, sea walls, coastal mangroves, and green roofs. Modern early-warning systems can reduce storm mortality by more than 70%.
Heat-resilient cities
Heatwaves now kill more people annually than any other climate extreme. Urban shading, tree canopy expansion, and heat-resilient public spaces – have become a public health necessity. In Chicago, in 1995, in a city of just 2.6m people, more than 700 people died in a heat wave that the city was unprepared for.
Food system resilience
Climate change threatens food stability through drought, extreme heat, and disrupted growing seasons.
Climate-resilient crops
Breeding heat-tolerant and drought-resistant varieties, and expanding precision agriculture, improve food security in volatile climates.
Efficient irrigation
Shifting from flood irrigation to drip or micro-irrigation can reduce water use by up to 60%.
Diversifying food sources
Alternative proteins, resilient aquaculture, and improved supply chains reduce reliance on vulnerable supply routes.
Disaster preparedness and public health
Early warning systems
Effective drought, storm, and wildfire alerts dramatically improve survival rates and reduce economic losses.
Emergency response capacity
Investments in evacuation routes, firefighting systems, and disaster medical teams are essential as extreme events intensify.
Climate-linked disease surveillance
Warmer temperatures worsen diseases like malaria and dengue, requiring new monitoring and public-health strategies.
Economic and social resilience
Climate-resilient livelihoods
Supporting farmers and fishers to shift towards more resilient practices reduces the likelihood of economic collapse and societal instability.
Financial protection
Resilience funds, climate-risk insurance, and insurance models help governments and households recover from climate shocks.
Migration planning
Developing humane policies for internal displacement and cross-border movements – a growing driver of geopolitical tension.
Climate security in Israel and the MENA region
It is becoming clear that climate security in Israel is a critical societal challenge, a significant economic opportunity, and a corresponding new and potentially crucial arena for philanthropic investment.
The MENA region is warming at twice the global average, and as the chart below makes clear, extreme heat days in Israel are increasing in frequency and intensity. Water scarcity, limited farm land, and rapid urbanization compound the risks. These challenges require significant medium-term and long-term planning if we are to lessen the impact of future weather extremes.
Average exposure to heat stress at 2:00 PM in the summer months (May 15-September 15), by decade
So Israel needs to prepare for very significant and life-threatening climate security risks. But doing this work properly can also position Israel to become a world leader in climate security and technology.
water security is crucial
The MENA region holds 6% of the world’s population but less than 1% of its renewable freshwater. Climate change amplifies this scarcity.
Israel’s water system is one of the world’s most climate-secure due to:
- Large-scale desalination, providing over half of domestic water
- Wastewater recycling at roughly 90%, the highest proportion of any country in the world
- High-efficiency irrigation, pioneered by Israeli companies such as Netafim
These approaches are relevant for countries such as Jordan, Morocco, and the UAE. Regional frameworks, including Israel-Jordan-UAE water-for-energy agreements, demonstrate how shared scarcity can drive cooperation.
Agriculture and Food Security
The MENA region is dependent on food imports; climate disruptions could reduce local yields by up to 30% by 2050, even as populations rise. Israel’s innovation ecosystem can help build regional resilience:
- Precision-agriculture sensors, imaging, and soil analytics
- Salt- and drought-tolerant crops
- Controlled-environment agriculture (greenhouses, vertical farming)
- Alternative proteins, reducing dependence on livestock and imports
Israeli agri-tech is starting to be deployed across the region, improving yields and reducing water use.
Extreme Heat and Urban Preparedness
Cities across the Gulf, the Middle East, and North Africa are experiencing record-breaking temperatures. Climate security requires:
- Greening and shading public areas
- Reflective surfaces and cool roofs
- Heat response plans and public health measures
- More cooling, powered by renewables where possible
Most of all, we need clear data; and we need mechanisms to focus public attention on the risks of not acting.
Climate Security Cooperation in a Fragmented Region
Climate impacts cross borders. But climate security can also be a peace-builder. Cross-border water-energy deals, and shared research on desert agriculture, regional solar and desalination partnerships, can help regional bridges.
In short: strengthening climate security is a central task of the 21st century. It requires upgrading the systems that sustain life. And in the MENA region, the stakes are especially high due to extreme heat, aridity, and population growth.
Philanthropists have an enormous opportunity to make commitments that will touch lives for good in profound ways: to deploy assets to invest in research and data; in coordination; in climate tech and climate finance; and in establishing and scaling vitally needed pilots.