Caltech receives $750 million donation for climate research from billionaire couple

PASADENA, Calif. (KABC) -- A $750 million donation from billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick will be made to the California Institute of Technology for climate and environmental research.

The Resnicks, owners of The Wonderful Company, will make the announcement Thursday, in what is the second-largest donation to a U.S. university and the largest for environmental sustainability research.

The donation seeks to confront urgent issues in environmental sustainability, including combating climate change.

"In order to comprehensively manage the climate crisis, we need breakthrough innovations, the kind that will only be possible through significant investment in university research," Stewart Resnick said in a statement.

The money will go toward studying a wide range of sustainability initiatives and constructing a research center, the Resnick Sustainability Resource Center, on the campus.

Money will be used to support research, such as developing electricity infrastructure, identifying the biggest impacts of climate change and mitigation efforts and studying biosphere engineering.

It is not the first time the Resnicks have given to the school. A $30 million donation from the Resnicks a decade ago helped establish the Resnick Sustainability Institute, according to the school.

The pledge comes as millions of young people participated in an international protest last week, demanding action on climate change.

"We wanted to do something that was meaningful and transformative and this is the biggest problem I believe facing the human race at the moment," Stewart Resnick told Eyewitness News. "It's primarily for my kids and grandkids and their kids."