Catalyzing Sustainability (Russian)

Abstract

This paper develops a decision framework for environmental philanthropy in search of achieving sustainability on a crowded planet. Many of the world's most pressing global challenges are environmental in nature (or have stark environmental implications) and require long-term efforts. Asking what and how environmental philanthropy can contribute to address the sustainability challenges, the paper first reviews the history of environmental philanthropy and analyzes its role in a world in which humanity is de facto tasked to actively manage nature. The paper maps the current landscape of environmental philanthropy, and applies the concepts of manufactured and external risks to the field. Subsequently, the paper develops a decision framework suggesting a portfolio approach that classifies actions based on knowledge about outcomes and probabilities under the categories of risk, uncertainty and ignorance. The framework is applied to the area deforestation.