Amazon founder and one of the world’s richest men, Jeff Bezos, has been accused of another move to curry favour with US President Donald Trump.
The Financial Times, citing three people familiar with the decision, reported that the Bezos Earth Fund has ended its support for the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI), a globally renowned body that “enables companies and financial institutions worldwide to play their part in combating the climate crisis.”
Jeff Bezos was one of the big name tech leaders that had attended last month’s inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States – alongside the likes of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Shou Zi Chew (TikTok CEO), Sundar Pichai (Alphabet CEO) and Dara Khosrowshahi (Uber CEO).
Bezos Earth Fund
It was five years ago in February 2020 when Jeff Bezos had launched the ‘Bezos Earth Fund’ and pledged $10 billion to help fight what he called at the time the “biggest threat to our planet”, namely climate change.
The money he had pledged was to be used to support the work of scientists, activists, and non-governmental organisations “to help preserve and protect the natural world.”
“I’m committing $10 billion to start and will begin issuing grants this summer,” he wrote at the time. “Earth is the one thing we all have in common – let’s protect it, together.”
The Bezos Earth Fund was reportedly one of the most significant backers of the SBTI, which develops “standards, tools and guidance which allow companies to set greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions targets in line with what is needed to keep global heating below catastrophic levels and reach net-zero by 2050 at latest.”
In April 2021 Amazon became the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in the United States, and the firm previously pledged to be carbon neutral and meet the goals of the Paris Accords by 2040.
Carbon offset clash?
But now according to the Financial Times, the Bezos Earth Fund has ended its support for the SBTI, after staff members had reportedly raised concerns about the influence of the Bezos fund last year.
The FT had also previously reported that both the fund and advisers to former US climate envoy John Kerry had backed a push for the organisation to allow the widespread use of controversial carbon credits by companies.
The Bezos Earth Fund previously told the FT it did not “make decisions” with the SBTI or have any involvement in its stance on offsets.
Trump appeasement?
But the FT reported that two people familiar with the funding relationship, said they believed the move to pause funding of SBTI after December 2024 was partly down to Bezos not wanting to annoy Trump, who has previously described climate change as a hoax.
“Once upon a time a tech billionaire started a foundation on a regular basis and many were interested in climate,” one person reportedly said. “I can’t imagine that anyone with anything to lose is going to think three times about doing anything on climate change in the US right now.”
However people familiar with the relationship also told the FT that the SBTI had also separately chosen to step away from the perceived influence of the Bezos foundation.
SBTi has “been working to diversify their funding . . . they’re thinking about other sources”, a third person familiar with the funding relationship told the FT.
The Bezos fund reportedly said it remained committed to its work and mission.
The SBTI reportedly said: “Our donors do not intervene in our processes to develop standards – and nor would they seek to.”
Silicon UK has approached the SBTI for comment on the FT report.
