Bezos Earth Fund Announced with a $10 Billion Grant to Kick-Off Global Climate Change Initiative

Did you know that by 2050, the United States will see the losses of annual GDP worth $83 billion taken from its economy each year due to the ongoing climate change crisis! It’s not just the US that’s stares at such a mammoth man-made loss. The UK and Japan are following right behind…

World’s richest man and technocrat Jeff Bezos has committed to do more than what others are doing to fight against global climate change. Jeff has announced the launch of the Bezos Earth Fund. He took to his Instagram handle to announce the initiative, granting $10 billion as a start-up fund to seed research work.

Jeff Bezos wrote – “Today, I’m thrilled to announce I am launching the Bezos Earth Fund.⁣⁣⁣”

The Founder, CEO, and President of Amazon explained why he thinks it’s the least he could do with The Bezos Earth Fund today to fight against the climate change crisis.

Jeff added, “Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet. 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. This global initiative will fund scientists, activists, NGOs — any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world. We can save Earth. It’s going to take collective action from big companies, small companies, nation-states, global organizations, and individuals. ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

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.⁣⁣⁣”

Last year, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, too, affirmed his steps to build an infrastructure that supports sustainability.

He wrote, “Our latest agreements will spur the construction of more than $2 billion in new energy infrastructure, including millions of solar panels and hundreds of wind turbines spread across three continents. In all, our renewable energy fleet now stands at 52 projects, driving more than $7 billion in new construction and thousands of related jobs.”

Sundar made these comments ahead of the United Nations Climate Action Summit 2019.

The Bezos Fund may help secure start-up projects that focus on building infrastructure for sustainable energy resources, environmental conversation and so on.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a 1.5°C average rise may put 20-30% of species at risk of extinction. If the planet warms by more than 2°C, most ecosystems will be on course to die out soon. 

Earlier this week, leading US airline Delta too announced its commitment to the global climate change initiative.

Starting March 1, 2020, Delta Air Lines is committing $1 billion over the next 10 years on its journey to mitigate all emissions from its global business going forward. The airline will invest in driving innovation, advancing clean air travel technologies, accelerating the reduction of carbon emissions and waste, and establishing new projects to mitigate the balance of emissions.

Recommended: Athens Alive Consortium Selects Poseidon as Climate Action Partner

Ed Bastian, Delta’s CEO said –

“There’s no challenge we face that is in greater need of innovation than environmental sustainability, and we know there is no single solution. We are digging deep into the issues, examining every corner of our business, engaging experts, building coalitions, fostering partnerships and driving innovation.”

Ed added, “We are on a journey, and though we don’t have all the answers today, we know that our scale, along with investments of time, talent and resources will bring meaningful impact to the planet and ensure the sustainability of our business for decades to come.”

Read More: Telefónica Will Be CO2 Neutral by 2050

Too Little, Too Late… Yet, There’s a Hope?

According to WWF’s Global Futures Report, the economic cost of nature’s decline impacts across 140 countries. The macroeconomic impact (of the climate change crisis) would be irreversible if the world doesn’t a****** to protect the planet.

We know that the Earth is heating up– and it’s fast. Yet, our efforts haven’t been enough or in-time to answer any of the questions that environmentalists and Earth researchers have been asking big corporations for the last 20 years. Only recently, we have seen global corporations finally committing to go “Net Zero Carbon” by 2025 and 2030. For example, Microsoft will be carbon negative by 2030.

Google’s Sustainability program is another technology-driven initiative to arrest global climate change effects. IBM, too, has been leading the Climate Change initiatives with its numerous campaigns and support for the Paris Agreement, the ENERGY STAR program, the American Business Act on Climate Pledge, the Climate Leadership Council plan and so on.

Global forums like WWF have been calling for support to meet global climate change challenges. It demonstrated how climate change is a PAN-Earth phenomenon where no two ecosystems can survive without the support of others. From melting polar ice caps to diminishing freshwater sources to blanket deforestation– these all lead to a domino resulting in an irreversible climate change, eventually putting living species in the line of extinction.

The Climate Action Summit had reinforced 1.5°C as the socially, economically, politically and scientifically acknowledge safe limit to global warming by the end of this century.

The group also collectively agreed to create an infrastructure of net zero emissions by 2050 as the global long-term climate objective for all.

New-age technologies such as AI, Cloud Computing, Drones, Battery-powered Mobility, and Internet of Things certainly hold the keys to our greener, cleaner and climate-controlled future.

The Bezos Earth Fund joins ongoing nation-driven campaigns. Some of the leading global climate change initiatives are listed below-

• The Leadership Group for Industry Transition, led by Sweden and India
• African Adaptation Initiative (AAI)
• Risk-Informed Early Action Partnership (REAP)
• InsuResilience Global Partnership
• REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation)
• The Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF)
• LDC-Vision 2050 and LDC Initiative for Effective Adaptation and Resilience (LIFE-AR)
• Coalition for Sustainable Energy Access
• The Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC)
• Initiative on Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage from Climate Change
• KWON-GESH CLIMATE PLEDGE
• Decarbonizing Shipping – Getting to Zero Coalition
• AOSIS 2020 Ambition Leadership Coalition
• Green New Deal, putting a green jobs program

(To share your climate change initiatives and insights on technology applications, please write to us at sghosh@martechseries.com)