Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos has named the 16 organizations that will be getting the first chunk of his $10 billion ‘Bezos Earth Fund’. Collectively, they will be receiving $791 million, although it was not specified how much would go to each group.
The creation of the Earth Fund was announced in February this year, and is part of Bezos’ pledge to support scientists, activists, NGOs and organizations working to protect the environment.
“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,” said Bezos in an Instagram post. “I’m inspired by what they’re doing, and excited to help them scale.”
The full list of grantees are a mix of big-name NGOs, labs, reforestation and climate justice groups. They include:
- 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
- World Wildlife Fund
This news comes a year after the announcement of Amazon’s ‘Climate Pledge’, which is the company’s commitment to be 100% powered by renewable energy by 2025 and be net-zero carbon by 2040. Amazon has also purchased 100,000 electric delivery vehicles and invested $100 million into reforestation projects and climate mitigation solutions.
