Billionaire Jeff Bezos names 16 grant recipients of the Bezos Earth Fund

By Lydia Dishman

November 16, 2020

We know that it takes Jeff Bezos only about a minute to add nearly $150,000 to his net worth, so it’s no surprise that he has a surplus of cash. Back in February, the Amazon founder and CEO announced that he’d set aside $10 billion (yes, with a B) to create the Bezos Earth Fund in an effort to combat climate change.

Today, we learned where the first dollars will be put to use.

In an Instagram post (also reported by CNBC), Bezos revealed that 16 initial recipients of the Earth Fund will land a combined $791 million. Among the grantees, the following five will receive $100 million:

    The Nature Conservancy

    Natural Resources Defense Council

    Environmental Defense Fund

    World Resources Institute

    World Wildlife Fund

However, as Fast Company’s Adele Peters noted in February, “The money isn’t nearly enough to fund the massive transition that the world needs.” A Morgan Stanley report last year estimated that “we’ll need to invest $50 trillion to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, including $14 trillion poured into renewables and $11 trillion to build electric cars and charging infrastructure.”

You can see the full list of named recipients here.

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