Forbes: Obama’s U.S.-Africa Forum Will Catalyze $14 Billion In Business Deals – By Michael Bloomberg and Penny Pritzker
August 5, 2014
“Africa is no longer a sleeping giant but is awake and open for business.” These words from a rising South African leader at last week’s Young African Leaders Summit could not be more accurate: Africa might well be the biggest market opportunity in the global economy today, and U.S. companies cannot afford to miss out.
Read moreThe Financial Times: US climate change to hit south hardest
June 24, 2014
The Risky Business report, a bipartisan project backed by three former US Treasury secretaries, sets out estimates of the potential costs of problems such as flooding caused by rising temperatures and higher sea levels. Its aim is to move the debate in the US, which has become characterised by partisan divisions, into a more practical assessment by business and political leaders of how to manage the risks posed by climate change. The study looks only at the US, and only at potential costs, rather than possible solutions.
The project is chaired by Hank Paulson, who was Treasury secretary under President George W Bush; Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York; and Tom Steyer, the former hedge fund manager turned environmental campaigner.
Read moreThe New York Times: The Right Way to Develop Shale Gas – By Michael Bloomberg and Fred Krupp
April 30, 2014
So here’s a reality check. The shale gas boom is indeed lowering energy costs, creating new jobs, boosting domestic manufacturing and delivering some measurable environmental benefits as well. Unlike coal, natural gas produces minuscule amounts of such toxic air pollutants as sulfur dioxide and mercury when burned — so the transition from coal- to natural-gas-fired electricity generation is improving overall air quality, which improves public health. There’s also a potential climate benefit, since natural-gas-fired plants emit roughly half the carbon dioxide of coal-fired ones.
Read moreThe Huffington Post: Europe’s Mayors Rise to the Challenge – By Michael R. Bloomberg
April 28, 2014
What if a city figured out how to capture wasted kinetic energy from cars and re-inject it into the electrical grid? Or if a city used high-tech auditory alerts that enabled the visually impaired to easily navigate city streets? Or if a city empowered citizens to direct their tax dollars into the specific programs that mattered most to them?
These are just a few of the 21 concepts that are finalists in an ideas competition, called Mayors Challenge Europe, that invited leaders of European cities to devise bold solutions to major urban problems. Winning cities will receive monetary awards, totaling €9 million, to help them implement their ideas.
Read moreThe New York Times: Private Citizen Bloomberg on Philanthropy
April 26, 2014
Mr. Bloomberg, 72, said philanthropists should focus on areas where they can test an idea and then, armed with results, get government money to turn the idea into a program. The belief that better government was crucial to improving people’s lives was a hallmark of Mr. Bloomberg’s tenure as mayor — so much so that his critics often accused him of running a “nanny state.”
Read moreThe Wall Street Journal: Bloomberg Backs a Solar Lamp
April 21, 2014
Bloomberg Philanthropies is scheduled Tuesday to announce a $5 million deal with LittleSun GmbH, the German company that makes Little Sun, a hand-held solar-powered lamp created by Berlin artist Olafur Eliasson and Copenhagen engineer Frederik Ottesen. It is the first such support lent by the foundation to a so-called social business.
The lamp, introduced two years ago at the Tate Modern museum in London, is intended for use in areas where electricity is scarce and the primary source of lighting is kerosene lamps. The device is available in eight sub-Saharan African countries. At $9 to $17 apiece, the device pays for itself in roughly six months, say Mr. Eliasson and Rohit Aggarwala, who is part of the environmental group at Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Read moreThe Guardian: Family planning groups in developing countries set for Bloomberg boost
March 27, 2014
Grassroots organisations are to share in a multi-million dollar project to improve family planning and reproductive health services for women and girls in Africa and Latin America.
Groups in Uganda, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Nicaragua will be able to apply for advocacy grants as part of a three-pillar, $50m (£30m) package to support family planning services. The scheme was announced on Thursday by Bloomberg Philanthropies, set up by Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York.
Read moreThe New York Times: Trying to Close a Knowledge Gap, Word by Word
March 25, 2014
Here in Providence, where more than 85 percent of public school students are eligible for federally subsidized lunches and two-thirds of public school kindergartners are behind in recognizing basic language sounds or identifying letters in print, officials see Providence Talks as just one part of a larger educational strategy. It is being funded by a $5 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, and officials hope that they can eventually secure some public funding.
Read moreThe Wall Street Journal: Bloomberg Giving Becoming More Global
February 26, 2014
In launching a program to provide child care, a playpen—or both—to some 80,000 Bangladeshi children ages 1 to 4, the foundation is pursuing a low-cost solution that could be scaled up after a two-year trial. The idea came from program officers currently working on another Bloomberg project to reduce tobacco use in Bangladesh.
Read moreThe Atlantic: Bloomberg’s New Plan: Save the Ocean, Feed the World
February 4, 2014
The Bloomberg project to “save the oceans and feed the world” is called the Vibrant Oceans Initiative. Over the next five years, Bloomberg Philanthropies is going to dole out $53 million to three organizations to fund specific fisheries reforms in Brazil, Chile, and the Philippines. The three organizations—Oceana, Rare, and EKO Asset Management—are all based in the U.S.
Read more