During 2017 the Board considered the post 2018 direction of the Foundation given the changing landscape of climate policy and the shift in focus from international negotiations to multi-stakeholder coalitions for climate action and national implementation. At the December 2017 Board meeting a decision was made to scale back the operations of the Foundation from the end of 2018, not undertake any new policy or research activities and focus on the promotion of climate justice, human rights and women’s empowerment going forward.
As reported in the Foundation’s Annual Report 2017, and made public in January 2018, the decision by the Trustees to scale back activities at the end of 2018 has now happened. There will be a planned closedown over Q1 and Q2 of 2019.
The Foundation is grateful to all the people who supported us in our work to advance climate justice since 2010. Our funders have been both brave and patient as we conceived a framework for climate justice. Our partners who have been women on the frontlines of climate action, think tanks, academics, government officials, civil society mobilisers and journalists have been generous with their own resources and we are grateful to them for sharing our ambition to imbed climate justice in international climate and development policies. Without this broad coalition of people and organisations we would not have been part of realising ten binding decisions or resolutions at the United Nations level that reflect principles of climate justice nor contributed to a reframing of the climate change narrative which puts issues of social justice at the centre of climate policy decision-making.
As of December 2018, the majority of the staff of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice have moved to new roles. We will take with us the lessons we have learned from our experiences with the Foundation, and we will continue to work for climate justice in whatever way we can, inspired by the indomitable spirit of those courageous women and men we have met on this journey.