Yahoo Finance Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pledges $10 billion to fight climate change
Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, is committing $10 billion of his own money to fight climate change through the creation of the “Bezos Earth Fund.”
The Amazon (AMZN) CEO announced the launch on Instagram, asserting humans can save the Earth by using an inclusive approach that combines the efforts and resources of all stakeholders.
"We can save Earth. It’s going to take collective action from big companies, small companies, nation-states, global organizations, and individuals,” the post stated. “I’m committing $10 billion to start and will begin issuing grants this summer. Earth is the one thing we all have in common — let’s protect it, together."
Bezos, who has a net worth of $130 billion, is no stranger to the climate change fight. In September 2019, the Amazon founder announced: “The Climate Pledge,” which stated that the retail behemoth’s ultimate goal is to become carbon-neutral by 2040.
At the same time, Bezos has been criticized about contributions made by himself and Amazon. Observers recently accused Bezos of being stingy after he donated $690,000 toward relief efforts related to devastating wild fires in Australia (which experts link to climate change). And Amazon, which Bezos founded in 1994, routinely pays an incredibly low tax rate on billions in profit.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang praised Bezos’s initiative while cautioning that the problems posed by climate change would require “nation-scale resources” to successfully combat.
Good for Bezos pledging $10 billion to fight climate change. But it’s going to take nation-scale resources and policies to genuinely shift consumption, adaptation and mitigation.
— Andrew Yang🧢 (@AndrewYang) February 17, 2020
Reggie Wade is a writer for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @ReggieWade.
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