Jeff Bezos pledges $10 billion to fight climate change in new initiative
Feb 17, 2020, 11:36 AM | Updated: 1:44 pm
(Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Amazon)
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced on Instagram the launch of the ‘Bezos Earth Fund,’ committing to $10 billion “to start,” with a promise to begin issuing grants in the summer.
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“Climate change is the biggest threat to our plant,” Bezos said in his post Monday. “I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet we all share.”
The Bezos Earth Fund is a global initiative that will fund “scientists, activists, NGOs” and additional efforts to protect the natural world, according to the post.
Bezos wrote that saving Earth will “take collective action from big companies, small companies, nation states, global organizations, and individuals.”
In early January, KIRO 7 reported that two Amazon employees were told they would be fired if they continued to speak out about the company’s environmental policies. The employees had expressed concerns, originally reported by The Washington Post, that the business practices of the Seattle-based company are not environmentally sound and are contributing to climate change.
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Bezos had announced late last year that Amazon would meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement 10 years early, setting a goal to be carbon neutral by 2040.
The Amazon Employees for Climate Justice issued a statement following Bezos’ announcement.
“We applaud Jeff Bezos’ philanthropy, but one hand cannot give what the other is taking away.”
Read the full statement on Twitter here.