Amazon pledges $10 billion investment in support of environment protection and climate change

CEO Jeff Bezos of Amazon pledged $10 billion in donation to nonprofits, activists, scientists, among other groups to help support their battle against climate change and environment protection.

As per the experts, however, it will be a major challenge for Amazon to contain emissions. With as many as 10 billion deliveries per year, the e-commerce giant relies heavily on its massive transportation system. Amazon’s workforce itself has criticized the company on emissions’ front on multiple occasions.

Bezos currently holds the reputation of being the richest man in the world. Owing to the rising challenge of global warming and climate change at large, multiple billionaires have started to pledge substantial amounts of funds to fight its adverse impact.

Amazon’s Earth Fund To Start Issuing Grants In The Upcoming Summer

The aforementioned initiative is being called the Earth Fund by Amazon. By the upcoming summer, the tech giant expects to start issuing grants from the fund.

Taking a step further towards environment protection, Amazon announced in 2019 that it plans on turning the company net carbon neutral in the next two decades. The tech firm was branded as the first to have announced such a major environment protection goal for 2040. Amazon also highlighted last year that it is excited about purchasing as many as 100,000 electric vehicles for delivery from Rivian Automotive LLC. Rivian is a U.S based startup that focuses on electric vehicles’ design and production.

While talking about the Paris climate accord, Bezos accentuated that the company is set to hit the accord’s target a decade earlier and is willing to invest $100 million for the restoration of wetlands and forests.

Amazon Employees For Climate Change Appreciates Bezos Philanthropy

Amazon’s efforts towards climate change may have been fueled by excessive criticism from its employees and activists who implored the tech giant to play its role in environment protection. Towards the end of 2019, hundreds of tech firms’ employees participated in climate change marches in Seattle and San Francisco. Employees were reported demanding a more aggressive stance from their employers regarding global warming.

An Amazon activist workers group called Amazon Employees for Climate Justice commented on the recent news and appreciated Bezos’s efforts and philanthropy. On the other hand, however, the group remarked that the investment still fails to compensate for an alarmingly high fossil fuel consumption in various components of the business and a range of its activities that can be linked to the rising challenge of climate change.

At the time of writing, Amazon is trading at $2,137 per share in the stock market that marks just over 10% gain in 2020 so far.