OREANDA-NEWS. Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable foundation established by billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is donating another \$30mn to the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, increasing its investment in the effort by nearly 38pc.

The new funds add to \$50mn that Bloomberg's charitable foundation donated to the environmental group's campaign in 2011. Bloomberg will also lead "more than a dozen" donors in efforts to match the latest donation, the foundation and the Sierra Club said today.

The Sierra Club will use the new money to support grassroots organizing and litigation efforts as well as to "continue to push regulators to crack down on harmful pollution and replace dirty power generation capacity with solar, wind and energy efficiency." The initial donation helped the group expand its Beyond Coal campaign to 45 states from 15, which it says has led to 187 coal-fired power plant retirements or retirement announcements as well as 7.7pc reduction in CO2 emissions from 2006 levels.

Members of the group seeking to match Bloomberg's \$30mn include individual donors, family foundations and major philanthropic organizations such as the Hewlett Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Yellow Chair Foundation, the Grantham Foundation and the Sandler Famly Foundation.