World’s richest man Jeff Bezos pledges US$10 billion to fight climate change
- Facing pressure from activists and his own employees, Jeff Bezos says he wanted to help tackle ‘the biggest threat to our planet’
- Bezos Earth Fund, which will support scientists, activists and non-profit groups, will start issuing grants this summer as part of initiative
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced he’s created the Bezos Earth Fund, his biggest-ever philanthropic investment to help counter the effects of climate change.
Bezos is starting with US$10 billion and will begin to issue grants in a few months.
“It’s going to take collective action from big companies, small companies, nation states, global organisations and individuals,” he said Monday in a post on Instagram. “We can save Earth.”
Bezos, the world’s richest person, is under pressure to balance Amazon’s need to deliver goods quickly with the environmental consequences of the rapid growth of online shopping.
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There is tension within Amazon on the issue, with some employees saying the company isn’t doing enough and there is a threat of punishment for those who are too outspoken on the matter.
The company last year said it would reach 80 per cent renewable energy use by 2024 and 100 per cent by 2030, up from 40 per cent today. The effort relies on a fleet of electric vehicles. The moves came after a worker group, Amazon Employees For Climate Justice, staged a protest and wrote a shareholder proposal based on their concerns.
The employee group said Monday that it applauds Bezos’s philanthropy, but it doesn’t change criticism about the way Amazon operates - not just with regards to shipping, but also the data centre energy used for their cloud storage business, propping up the fossil fuels industry.
“What this shows is that employees speaking out works,” the group said in an emailed statement. “We need more of that right now.”
In theory, online shopping could benefit the environment if it resulted in fewer vehicle trips to stores and customers placed large orders infrequently. In reality, shoppers still browse in stores and order online when they’re ready to purchase.
Amazon Prime, a subscription programme that includes delivery discounts, allows people to make frequent small orders without penalty, resulting in a larger number of vehicle trips and more boxes than if orders were placed less frequently in batches.
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Bezos, 56, has a net worth of more than US$130 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.
His US$10 billion investment, announced separately from the company’s efforts, marks his largest philanthropic investment to date. His other major personal investment is in space travel, which he has also at times called necessary because of the instability of the Earth’s climate.
For years, Bezos didn’t pursue major philanthropic projects, leading to public pressure as his wealth rose.
Fellow billionaire Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, now devotes much of his time to his charity foundation and a venture fund that makes investments aimed at helping curb emissions and reverse climate change.
Additional reporting by Reuters and Agence France-Presse
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