Published 18:21 IST, November 17th 2020
Jeff Bezos announces $791 million in grants to 16 organisations working on climate crisis
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that he will be giving $791 mn in grants as part of the Bezos Earth Fund to 16 organisations working on climate change.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on November 16 announced that he will be giving $791 million in grants as part of the Bezos Earth Fund to at least 16 organisations that are currently working on tackling the climate crisis. Taking to Instagram, the world’s richest person talked about how in the last several months he has been gaining knowledge from a group of “incredibly smart” people who have made their life’s goal to work on environmental situation and its impact on communities. Through the same post, Bezos said that the recently announced $791 million is “just the beginning” of his $10 billion commitment to fund the scientists, activists, NGOs among others.
Bezos wrote on Instagram, “I've spent the past several months learning from a group of incredibly smart people who've made it their life's work to fight climate change and its impact on communities around the world...I'm inspired by what they're doing, and excited to help them scale, we can all protect Earth's future by taking bold action now.”
“This $791 million in donations is just the beginning of my $10 billion commitment to fund scientists, activists, NGOs, and others. We can all protect Earth’s future by taking bold action now,” he added.
The Grantees are The Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, ClimateWorks Foundation, Dream Corps Green For All, Eden Reforestation Projects, Energy Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, The Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, NDN Collective, Rocky Mountain Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, The Solutions Project, Union of Concerned Scientists, World Resources Institute, and World Wildlife Fund.
$2 bn in projects aimed to tackle climate change
Earlier this year, Amazon had pledged to invest $2 billion to support the development of technologies that are not only sustainable but will also enable the American multinational technology company along with other firms to combat the climate crisis. Calling it ‘The Climate Pledge Fund’, the move aimed at encouraging other companies to contribute to the commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040 and ensure the facilitation. The Climate Pledge was an initiative co-funded by Amazon and Global Optimism as a commitment to reach the Paris Agreement ten years early along with attaining a net-zero carbon in the next 20 years.
Updated 18:20 IST, November 17th 2020