Jeff Bezos has committed $10 billion to fight climate change, drawing a wide range of responses, from effusive praise to deep skepticism.
Bezos called climate change the “biggest threat to our planet” in an Instagram post announcing his plans. The Amazon founder and richest man in the world said his Bezos Earth Fund will support scientists, activists, and nonprofits working together to reduce the impact of climate change.
To succeed, he wrote, “it’s going to take collective action from big companies, small companies, nation states, global organizations, and individuals.”
Bezos did not provide further information on the structure of the fund or the timing of the grants or investments it would make.
‘Incredibly Exciting’
The $10 billion boost was welcome news to foundations that support efforts to combat the effects of climate change. About 3 percent of all philanthropic dollars are directed to climate efforts, a figure Hewlett Foundation President Larry Kramer called “disgraceful” in a recent Chronicle opinion article. (The Hewlett Foundation is a financial supporter of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.)
Kramer called the Bezos announcement “incredibly exciting” and called upon Bezos to join with others in the fight.
“If the Earth Fund works collaboratively with existing efforts to complete what has been started, catalyze new efforts where there are gaps, and generate new momentum for a climate-friendly future, it can be a literal game-changer,” Kramer said in a statement.
Charlotte Pera, president of the ClimateWorks Foundation, agreed that the size of Bezos’s gift altered the landscape of climate-change philanthropy.
“Mr. Bezos’s gift shows that philanthropy is ready, willing, and able to rise to the challenge,” she said in a statement.
Others viewed the fund differently.
Some, like Greenpeace USA, noted that Amazon is a large polluter and has rebuffed its own employees’ efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.
“Why won’t Bezos lead by cleaning up its own house?” the group asked in a tweet. “Amazon has massive climate issues.”
The announcement was the second commitment in recent weeks about climate change by a billionaire donor.
Earlier this month, in their annual letter marking the 20th anniversary of their foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates said they would “swing for the fences” to mitigate the effects of climate and reduce carbon emissions.
Climate is not one of the Gates Foundation’s program areas, but Bill Gates has pursued a personal interest in the subject. He led the creation of the $1 billion fund Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which invests in startups working to curb emissions. (Bezos is an investor in that project.) “The world can’t solve a problem like climate change without making big bets,” Gates wrote.
Taking On Carbon
Although Bezos has accumulated a fortune of about $130 billion, according to Forbes, he has not been known for his philanthropy. His first foray into big gifts came in 2018 when he and his then-wife MacKenzie Bezos announced a $2 billion commitment to reduce homelessness and build a network of preschools inspired by the Montessori educational approach. At that point, his publicly announced gifts over the preceding decade totaled about $160 million, according to a Chronicle analysis.
After they divorced MacKenzie signed the Giving Pledge, a commitment by the ultrawealthy to give away most of their fortunes in their lifetime. Jeff has not signed the pledge.
Billionaire Philanthropists
By making such a large commitment — if it were placed in a private foundation, Bezos’s $10 billion would be in the top 10 private grant makers, about the size of the Open Society Foundations — Bezos should quell criticism that his giving is inadequate, said Benjamin Soskis, a research associate at the Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy. Such a large gift helps establish a new norm, Soskis said, that the ultrawealthy should earmark more of their fortunes for philanthropy.
But Bezos has also opened himself up to new salvos from people wary of billionaire philanthropists wielding too much power and attempting to curry favor with the public.
“This is really the first gift that’s commensurate with his fortune,” Soskis said. “But he’s entering new territory, and it will not quiet many of the critics.”
And in the hours after Bezos announced his plans, the first criticisms surfaced on social media. “As a #NativeAmerican I am totally down with saving Mother Earth, it just seems like several billionaires are getting in this bandwagon to save their own hides and lack concern for the actual inhabitants of the Earth — people,” wrote Edgar Villanueva, author of Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance, in a tweet.
Anand Giridharadas, a critic of billionaire philanthropy and editor at large at Time magazine, believes climate change is the world’s most pressing issue but dismissed Bezos’s commitment, suggesting Bezos himself bore responsibility for muting the response to global warming.
“We have a climate crisis in the first place because a small few have too much power, pay too little in taxes, and erode the conditions for democratic change-making, and I fear this won’t change any of that,” he tweeted.
