The Cost of Giving; Let’s Talk Philanthropy & Climate Change
Well folks, it has finally happened. Jeff Bezos has jumped in his giant robot and is going to save us from climate change. Well… maybe he’s not in the robot but he did put out a 130-word insta-missive that he intends to give $10B towards efforts that “[offer] a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world”. Please forgive our cautious optimism, the money would undoubtedly help (in fact it may double global climate charity totals if enacted over 20 years) but there are good reasons to be skeptical around gifts such as these.
First reason to be skeptical: the only person policing Jeff Bezos is… Jeff Bezos. It doesn’t appear like he is in any way obligated to follow through on this or what the timetable is on actual checks being written. Second, the person in charge has a very poor track record on climate, as Amazon has seemingly made very little progress (and given few details) on how it will get to climate neutral by 2040. In addition, the company has harassed and threatened employees protesting the lack of climate action. Third, we have no details on what projects the Bezos Earth Fund will be pursuing or what a ‘real possibility’ entails. For all we know, the funding may go to ill-conceived moonshots or reckless geoengineering projects. And that gets us to the Fourth objection: no oversight. Big donations are often splashy ways to deflect criticism while remaining completely in control. Amazon only released its carbon emissions in 2019 after years of scrutiny and it did so by self-reporting rather than participating with the CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) or other established protocols. More damningly, Amazon continues to fund climate-change denying groups like CEI and to rely on fossil fuel-burning delivery vehicles with little or no detail on how they will reach their Shipment Zero goal (also, why does Shipment Zero only apply to half of their shipments?). And finally, this would still involve private sector giving which is not the overwhelming policy response experts agree we need (hey Bezos, read that newspaper you bought). Even if he pursues the best possible uses for the money, a significant chunk of that money was likely siphoned off from public resources, as aggressive tax schemes over the last decade meant AMZN paid ~$3B in taxes on over $27B in profit (that’s an effective rate of 12.7%). And then there is the impact of the remainder of his wealth ($120B and counting) that apparently is not going toward climate efforts. And, while Blue Origin is partly built around the thesis that we can move heavy industry and resource extraction off-world, it is unclear how well that will work and space missions look pretty carbon-intensive.
Generally, giving is a good thing, but massive giving hints at an underlying issue. Widening disparities, and governments starved of funding by industries built to hide wealth, severely limit society’s ability to combat the climate crisis. Perhaps the most impactful use of money would be to put climate-friendly, science-literate politicians on both sides of the aisle into office in the U.S. and around the world. After all, everything we do (even constructing $650M hydrogen-powered superyachts) has an impact on the climate, and titans of industry have an increased responsibility to clean house, pay their taxes and submit to real oversight based on established, science-based climate authority.
Kellen Parker, Head of Research, YvesBlue
RBS pledged to cut emissions of its operations to zero this year and be ‘climate positive’ by 2025. They also have cut out fossil fuel financing in the last two years.
As we often reference, Project Drawdown is a great source for ideas on fighting climate change.
Remember if you are feeling overwhelmed about climate change you are not alone. This is an interesting site sharing letters from climate scientists and researchers with some additional resources.
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