How the Bezos Earth Fund spends its billions

Zero: The Climate Race

Bloomberg

Technology, Business, Science

4.7 • 219 Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2023

⏱️ 32 minutes

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Summary

Amazon made Jeff Bezos very rich. In 2020, he decided to pledge a portion of that wealth — $10 billion — to launch the Bezos Earth Fund. It is the largest commitment to climate philanthropy ever made and, by most measures, a vast amount of money. But it is also a small fraction of the $3.5 trillion that is needed annually to hit net zero by 2050. To make an impact, it has to be spent strategically and attract a lot more money from governments and corporations.

This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi asks Bezos Earth Fund CEO Andrew Steer how the fund spends its billions, what counts as success, and how competition between billionaires is shaping climate philanthropy.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim, as well as Robin Pomeroy at the World Economic Forum for arranging studio space. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Zero. I'm Akshadrati. This week, my money, your money and Jeff's money.
0:07.0	In February 2020, Jeff Bezos, then the richest person on the planet, posted a picture
0:25.2	to his 4 million Instagram followers.
0:28.6	It showed the Earth from space, the North American continent peeking out from behind the clouds.
0:34.5	And accompanying the post was a big announcement.
0:37.4	He was committing $10 billion to launch the Bezos Earth Fund.
0:42.3	It is the largest commitment to climate philanthropy ever made,
0:46.4	and the fund is due to give out all the $10 billion by 2030.
0:51.8	That money, as Bezos outlined, will fund, and I quote, scientists, activists, NGOs,
0:59.0	any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world.
1:04.8	Already the fund has given out about $1.6 billion to more than 100 projects around the world, from the Congo Basin to the mainland
1:13.3	US. About a third of that money has gone to nature and conservation spending, but the fund
1:19.9	has also given out grants to projects involving food security, decarbonization of industry and
1:25.8	climate tech. Bezos has made appearances at high-profile events like COP26 and the New York Climate Week to announce how the money will be spent.
1:34.3	I'm pleased to announce a $2 billion pledge allocated directly to restoring nature and transforming food systems.
1:42.3	This is part of the Bezos Earth Fund's $10 billion commitment to fight climate change,
1:49.0	enhance nature, and advance environmental justice and economic opportunity.
1:56.0	By most measures, $10 billion is a lot of money.
2:00.0	But it is also a small fraction of the $3.5 trillion
2:03.6	that is needed annually to hit net zero by 2050. To make an impact, it needs to be spent
2:10.4	strategically and attract a lot more money from governments and corporations.
2:15.5	My guest today is Andrew Stier, the CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund.
	...

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