With repeated threats by Climate change on Earth’s residents and their involved Economics, Nations and even corporates have realized that there can be no business on a dead planet.
Every awakened individual as well as conglomerate has realized the importance of working towards planet’s well being and are making strides to preserve the very resources they have been left with, in order to continue to survive.
The Pandemic alone became a harbinger of prosperity for a few big Businesses but mostly caused several MSMEs to shut down during the lockdown.
It therefore, has become an essentiality, to give a part of ourselves back to the Mother who defends us from all perils at the forefront or the one whose defenses have been weakened by its progeny.
“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”, wrote Jeff Bezos on Instagram.
The Amazon’s founder has announced to establish the Bezos Earth Fund in February 2020 with a corpus of $10bn in donations to various environmental groups in order “to start” addressing the climate crisis.
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The richest man on the Earth (His net-worth increased from $64 billion to $177 billion) is even suggestive of replenishing the grant in future.
“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.”
Where the funding is flowing?
The first tranche containing a total of $791 million (about eight per cent of the total) has been allocated to 16 green groups.
The majority of this chunk has been given to “legacy” organizations with a legitimate track-record like the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Environmental Defense Fund, the World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy.
The above four have known to receive $100 million each.
Rest of the tranche’s allocation is distributed amongst Climate-oriented startups like the NDN Collective and the Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice and research groups like the Rocky Mountain Institute and World Resources Institute.
Others include the Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, the ClimateWorks Foundation, Dream Corps Green For All, the Eden Reforestation Projects, the Energy Foundation, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Solutions Project.
From the total amount, a significant $151m is donated towards environmental justice grantees which is found to be one of the largest ever given to the sector.
According to an interview given to The Verge, the majority of this grant will be utilized in launching a satellite next year which will monitor global methane emissions and build a publicly accessible platform to fetch that data.
Amazon has another $2 billion climate fund under its name, backing initiatives to make more electric vehicles available to public and capturing greater carbon dioxide emissions.
Indian Companies funding Nature Conservation:
Several bigger names (Government as well as private entities) in India have been utilizing their CSR funds for conservation and protection of wildlife and their wild habitats.
Apollo tyres, Oracle Inc., HCL foundation, ONGC, Tata Chemicals etc. have helped strengthening the financial aspects of helping Nature in India.
Ranging from Wipro for their Energy Conservation programme or ITC for their Sustainable Agriculture, from Hebbal lake repairing in Mysuru by Infosys to Renewable Energy Project by Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd., all have contributed in their own little but great ways.
Critiques are not moved by Bezos’ philanthropy:
Sunrise Movement: “A reminder that Jeff Bezos has made over $48 billion during the pandemic while over 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment. Imagine if he actually had to pay taxes and what that money could help fund.”
Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice: “He has an opportunity to do so much with the funds that he has provided out there, although I would still consider it chump change compared to the wealth that he has accumulated off the backs of our people.”
They have even highlighted pollution caused by Amazon’s bustling delivery trucks or inability to shift to zero-emission vehicles.
“If the Earth Fund wants to purport to save the planet, they should send funds directly to grassroots communities who are the least responsible and hardest hit by climate disaster and the kinds of rapacious business practices Bezos engages in.”
Amazon’s rhetoric in the face of criticism
Bezos Earth Fund’s CEO Dr. Andrew Steer has said: “We will emphasize social justice, as climate change disproportionately hurts poor and marginalized communities.”
Even the company’s Spokesperson explained: “We’re proud to have created more than 40,000 good jobs in the region with industry-leading pay and benefits, and we are investing heavily to build an environmentally-sustainable business and support the communities where we operate.”
“As part of this work, we co-founded the Climate Pledge – a commitment to be net-zero carbon across our business operations 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.”
“It’s also why we’re deploying 100,000 electric delivery vehicles by 2030 that will save millions of metric tonnes of carbon as well as installing solar rooftop at our facilities and investing in large-scale off-site renewable projects to put us on a path to power our operations with 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of our original target of 2030; investing $2 billion in the development of decarbonizing services and solutions through the Climate Pledge Fund.”