Leonardo DiCaprio funneled grants through dark money group to fund climate nuisance lawsuits

Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio's non-profit foundation awarded grants to a dark money group which, in turn, funneled money to a law firm spearheading climate nuisance lawsuits nationwide. It is according to emails reviewed by Fox News Digital, reports nypost.com.

Correspondence between Dan Emmett, a major philanthropist, and Ann Carlson, a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) climate professor in 2017 revealed that the two worked with law firm Sher Edling to raise money for its efforts to sue oil companies over alleged climate change deception on behalf of state and local governments, according to the emails obtained by watchdog group Government Accountability and Oversight (GAO) and shared with Fox News Digital, nypost.com.

In their e-mails, Emmett and Carlson discuss how Chuck Savitt, Sher Edling's director of strategic client relationships, had sought Emmett's support and had already received support from Terry Tamminen in his role as the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation's CEO, a title he held between 2016 and 2019.

When the emails were exchanged, Carlson, who is now a senior Biden administration official, served as co-director of the UCLA Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, the advisory board which Emmett still chairs.

"Chuck Savitt who is heading this new organisation behind the lawsuits has been seeking our support," Emmett wrote to Carlson on July 22, 2017. "Terry Tamminen in his new role with the DiCaprio Foundation has been a key supporter."

Emmett also forwarded a message Savitt sent him three days earlier on July 19, 2022 asking for his support, according to the records.

Savitt mentioned in that email that Sher Edling's first lawsuits were filed with the support of the Collective Action Fund for Accountability, Resilience and Adaptation, a fund managed at the time by dark money group Resources Legacy Fund (RLF).

"Wanted to let you know that we filed the first three lawsuits supported by the Collective Action Fund on Monday," Savitt had told Emmett, reports nypost.com.

"These precedent setting cases call on 37 of the world's leading fossil fuel companies to take responsibility for the devastating damage sea level rise - caused by their greenhouse gas emissions - is having on coastal communities."

Savitt also offered to set up a meeting between Emmett and Vic Sher, a partner at Sher Edling. The email correspondence took place two months before the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation publicly announced it would contribute $20 million in grants to various climate and conservation causes.

The group's announcement, which has since been deleted but remains archived, included a grant to the RLF "to support precedent-setting legal actions to hold major corporations in the fossil fuel industry liable," closely mirroring Savitt's language.

"These grantees are active on the ground, protecting our oceans, forests and endangered species for future generations - and tackling the urgent, existential challenges of climate change," Leonardo DiCaprio said at the time.

According to nypost.com, Tamminen added that the organisation believed it needed "to do as much as we can now, before it is too late." The announcement didn't mention Sher Edling.

In February 2018, months after the initial email exchange, Emmett told Carlson that she could mention to other prospective donors that he and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation were now "serious supporters" of Sher Edling's ongoing litigation. (IANS)

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