A Look at the Media Billionaire Financing the U.S. Share of the Paris Climate Agreement
(https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87294476)
Just as the Trump administration promised, the United States is once again withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement in order to “drill, baby, drill”—one decision in a slew of misinformed, undiplomatic executive orders the President signed in January.
Michael R. Bloomberg, business mogul and former mayor of New York City, is stepping up to pay the United States’ dues. He also did this the first time Trump left the agreement in 2017. A January 23 press release from Bloomberg Philanthropies shared that the group will be “covering the funding gap left by the United States to UN Climate Change (UNFCCC) and upholding the country’s reporting commitments.”
The Paris Agreement was formed in 2015, when 194 countries plus the European Union agreed to submitting national climate plans, or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), every five years. It is the bedrock of international climate action and the first binding agreement to lower Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions with the goal to “substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to hold global temperature increase to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.”
Now, the “Home of the Brave” is embodying cowardice and incompetence by “free riding” while being the world’s second largest GHG emitter.
It is important to note that the US cannot leave the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) without a two-thirds majority in the Senate, but it can leave the agreement; it will take a year after notifying the UN Secretary-General for official withdrawal to take effect. Then, we will join the ranks of Iran, Libya, and Yemen, the only countries that never joined the agreement, all of which are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
This is just another example of Trump’s aspirations to align with the oil-rich Gulf states of the Middle East who found their wealth through oil exports. It’s an alignment that comes at the expense of upholding environmental and human rights laws.
Make no mistake—Trump’s courting of leaders like Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is also directly linked to his personal business interests: the Trump Organization has invested in real estate worth billions in Riyadh and across the Arabian peninsula and holds interest in the Saudi-funded LIV Golf tour—never mind how this violates the emoluments clause of the Constitution (“no person holding a position of trust or profit in the United States can accept any gift title, office or emolument from a foreign state…”).
The bottom line is, this move sets a terrible precedent for other states and corporations to back away from their climate commitments, and it is plunging this country further into disrepute and irrelevance on the international stage.
But there is hope. Mike Bloomberg, The UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions, is intent on the U.S. meeting its global climate obligations and reporting commitments. Together with other US climate funders, he is closing the gap while also maintaining support for America Is All In, a coalition trying to significantly reduce emissions by 2035.
Bloomberg is showcasing what real bravery and leadership look like. His life is a masterclass on using wealth for good, on “being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy,” as George Bernard Shaw, the Irish political activist, famously wrote.
Michael Ruben Bloomberg, 83, was born on Valentine’s Day to a middle-class Jewish family in Massachusetts. He was one of the youngest Eagle Scouts in history at age 12—he escorted elderly voters to the polls, including Amelia Earhart’s mother on two occasions.
Bloomberg worked in a parking lot while taking out loans from the government to pay his way through Johns Hopkins University, where he studied electrical engineering, became the first Jewish member of Phi Kappa Psi, and was president of his fraternity and class—he often told friends of wanting to become president of the US. From there he went to Harvard Business School and got an entry-level job with the financial services firm Salomon Brothers making $9,000 a year. Eventually, he climbed the ranks to run their information systems, but the firm was acquired, and Bloomberg was let go.
A wise Fred Rogers said, “Often out of periods of losing come the greatest strivings toward a new winning streak.” This was exactly true for a young Michael. The day after being fired, Bloomberg launched a startup out of a one-room office. Today, Bloomberg LP is one of the most successful financial news and information companies in the global arena. Bloomberg himself owns 88% of the company’s stock, making him one of the dozen richest people on the planet ($106 billion, to be exact). He still schedules his own appointments for $35 haircuts from Alberto Rottura, though, as he has for 30-plus years.
While Bloomberg terminals (the computer software system that is necessary for most financial professionals so they can access economic data and place trades) is what rakes in the big bucks, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Business, and the television, radio, and print businesses are better known to the mass public.
Bloomberg was elected mayor of New York just weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and through tragedy he helped revitalize the city, its schools, its businesses, and its people. His dedication to public health as mayor resulted in policies that are now commonplace across the country: the requirement for chain restaurants to post calorie counts, banning the use of artificial trans fats in restaurants, and the banning of smoking in indoor workplaces or public areas like beaches and healthcare facilities. He also helped to cut NYC’s carbon footprint by 13 percent.
We have ample reason to be wary of billionaires who edge their way into politics right now. But Bloomberg is showing how billionaires can be a force of positive change; he is part of The Giving Pledge, a nonprofit started by Gates and Buffet, made up of philanthropists who pledge to give away almost all of their wealth to charitable causes during their lifetimes. So far, Bloomberg has donated $21.1 billion of his wealth. “Making a difference in people’s lives—and seeing it with your own eyes—is perhaps the most satisfying thing you’ll ever do,” he said in his pledge letter.
Whether you realize it or not, you’ve seen Bloomberg’s work with your own eyes, too. His focus areas are in the arts, public health, the environment, government innovation, education, and the Greenwood Initiative, which is fostering wealth accumulation in Black communities by countering systemic underinvestment. Besides donations to the arts, as mayor he once conducted an orchestra to celebrate the reopening of City Center in NYC; how well he did is another matter as he quit piano lessons a year in and has said his favorite piece is still the C major scale.
You may recall that Bloomberg ran for president as a Democrat (he changed party affiliation many times early on in his career) in 2020 to “return integrity, honesty, and competence to the White House,” and he would not accept any political donations to his campaign. If he had won, he would not have taken a salary; as mayor his annual salary was $1. While candidates, like Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar, and others criticized him at the time for skipping grassroots campaigning, Bloomberg stands in stark contrast to many politicians whose stances are determined by the super PACs that fund them—just look at how the South African plutocrat, Elon Musk, is pulling all the puppet strings right now.
In the 2020 general election, Bloomberg was one of the largest individual supporters of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And in 2024, he donated $50 million to a nonprofit funding Kamala Harris’s campaign to try and stop the current siege of our nation’s democracy by an unconstrained executive branch.
In addition to serving as a special envoy on climate solutions for the UN, he has helped to lead the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he committed $40 million to help low- and middle-income countries fight the disease spreading. In 2024, President Joe Biden awarded him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for revolutionizing the economy and fighting gun violence and climate change.
Michael Bloomberg is also the founder of Everytown for Gun Safety; it all began in 2006 when Bloomberg, mayor of New York City at the time, and 13 other mayors started Mayors Against Illegal Guns to fight crime. In 2014 they partnered with Moms Demand Action to become Everytown, with Bloomberg investing $50 million; the gun safety group is now the largest American coalition fighting for common-sense gun laws.
We need to keep our eyes on Bloomberg; the work he is doing is benefitting all Americans in one way or another—this is the kind of leader we should have in the White House. Not all billionaires in power are bad, just the zealots who are currently plunging our democracy into decay. But we the people have the choice to instead look up to leaders like Bloomberg, who is upholding the US’s long-standing commitments and combating climate change.
Mr. Bloomberg aptly said, “More and more Americans have had their lives torn apart by climate-fueled disasters, like the destructive fires raging in California…Now, philanthropy’s role in driving local, state, and private sector action is more crucial than ever—and we’re committed to leading the way.”
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