Climate groups accept millions from charity linked to fossil fuel investments

Some of the world’s best-known climate campaign groups have taken millions of pounds in donations from a foundation run by billionaire hedge fund bosses whose investment fund has invested in fossil fuel companies, the Guardian has learned.

Groups including the European Climate Foundation, the Carbon Tracker Initiative and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) have taken millions of pounds in grants over the past two years from Quadrature Climate Foundation, according to filings with the Charity Commission. WWF told the Guardian on Tuesday it would investigate the donation.

Quadrature Climate Foundation was set up by Quadrature Capital, a multibillion-pound investment fund founded by the enigmatic billionaires Greg Skinner and Suneil Setiya. Quadrature Capital has stakes worth more than $170m (£135m) in fossil fuel companies, according to filings with US regulators.

The fund’s most recent filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission show that as of the end of March, Quadrature had stakes in 45 fossil fuel companies, mostly in North America.

They included a $24m stake in ConocoPhillips, the multinational oil and gas company named by the Guardian in 2019 as one of the world’s most polluting companies. The fund had also invested more than $26m in Cheniere Energy, a major US producer of liquified natural gas for export. And it had a $20m stake in Cenovus Energy, a Canadian company that was recently reprimanded by regulators after 1,000 litres of diesel leaked into a fishing lake in Alberta.

Its climate foundation gave grants to 45 green groups worth about £175m in 2021 and 2022. They included £4m to the European Climate Foundation, which promotes net zero policies in Europe; £2.7m to the Carbon Tracker Initiative; and more than £3m to the WWF.

ECF has previously given money to the Guardian, but before Quadrature Climate Foundation was established.

The foundation continues to expand its activities: the Conscious Advertising Network, an initiative by the Integrated Society of British Advertisers to “decarbonise the advertising industry”, recently announced Quadrature as a funder. The CAN urges brands to ask their advertising agencies: “Do you know if they work with any clients that further the interests of fossil fuels?”

A spokesperson for Quadrature said: “Climate change is already pushing many parts of the world beyond critical temperature tipping points, with uncertain and potentially severe consequences particularly for the poorest and most vulnerable countries.

“Since 2019, Quadrature Climate Foundation has deployed over £200m to almost 150 climate organisations. The foundation expects to increase funding substantially over the coming years, focused on unlocking the most urgent climate solutions that can help society address the new climate reality.”

A spokesperson for Global Witness, which received £1m from Quadrature last year, said: “Global Witness is very grateful to Quadrature Climate Foundation for their support to our work to tackle powerful interest groups driving the climate crisis.

“We deeply value the donations we receive from a great number of individuals and institutions and encourage them to align their investments with their values and the goals of their philanthropy.”

Mark Campanale, founder and director of the Carbon Tracker Initiative, said: “We are aware Quadrature Capital’s investment strategy (separate to the foundation) is based on algorithmic trading, ie the stocks are constantly turned over using complex trading models and are not actively picked or held long term. We believe in transparency and the names of our funders are published in our annual report on our website.”

A spokesperson for WWF said: “Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We will be looking into this with the Quadrature Climate Foundation.”

Other green groups that have taken the fund’s money did not respond to a request for comment.

Quadrature Capital was founded in 2010 by Skinner and Setiya. The pair previously worked for DE Shaw, the New York-based fund manager, and for De Putron Fund Management, an investment firm set up by Peter de Putron, a Tory donor and the brother-in-law of the former business secretary Andrea Leadsom.

The fund trades using algorithms to decide which stocks to buy, and one person familiar with it said it took a “market-neutral trading strategy” that did not involve analysing their underlying business model or holding stocks for long periods of time.

The strategy appears to be paying off. Its most recent accounts reveal the fund made £560m in pre-tax profits for the year ending 31 January 2022. That allowed it to pay nearly £357m in salaries to its 98 staff – an average pay of £3.6m a person. The two directors took £3.2m each, less than the average across the firm.

In 2021, Bloomberg reported Setiya was considering bidding about $153m for one of London’s most expensive apartments in the One Hyde Park development.

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