Ellen Dorsey

Under Ellen Dorsey’s leadership, the Wallace Global Fund has taken an unusual step for most private foundations. In 2018, it announced it would be spending down its entire endowment fund and putting that money toward tackling climate change and other efforts to support human rights and justice. Then this September it decided to accelerate that timeline: All its money would be spent by the end of the year. In the past year alone it has disbursed $50 million, with $24 million going to U.S.-based organizations.

What is the single most important action you think the public, or a specific company or government (other than your own), needs to take in the next year to advance the climate agenda?

The single most important action the public can take is to demand that governments immediately stop directly subsidizing the fossil fuel industry's expansion with their hard earned tax dollars.

What is a climate solution (other than your own) that isn't getting the attention or funding it deserves?

Community-driven just transition projects for renewable energy, sustainability, and agro-ecology are exploding around the world. If funded for scale and replication, they would reduce emissions, create new local jobs, build broader public support for climate action, and shift the incentives and systems enabling continued fossil fuel usage and expansion.

What gives you hope about the future of the planet/climate movement?

Youth-led climate movements inspire enormous hope. They are clear, compelling, and strategic in their ambition and demands. They are building and exerting political and economic power and organizing others to join them. Throughout history and across geographies, no meaningful social change has ever happened without youth activism. They are the fuel for climate action at scale and in time!

Do you think AI will help or worsen the climate crisis? How?

Undoubtedly, AI will aid in monitoring of emissions and will strengthen complex scientific, economic, and policy analysis required for climate action. But without immediate government regulation, those contributions will be overpowered by the harms. AI will massively increase emissions from unlimited usage and from fossil fuel-powered data centers. Further, AI will continue to be used to sow disinformation about climate change and its harms, confusing or dividing the public, and slowing momentum for getting off of fossil fuels.