Amazon has launched a $2 billion venture capital fund aimed at supporting companies working to combat climate change. The Climate Pledge Fund’s foundation follows an open letter sent by thousands of Amazon employees to executives, imploring them to take a firmer stance on climate change. In February, Amazon chief Jezz Bezos promised to donate $10bn of his $138.5bn fortune to climate change initiatives.
“It’s going to take collective action from big companies, small companies, nation states, global organizations, and individuals,” Bezos said then. His company’s latest philanthropic venture “will invest in visionary companies whose products and solutions will facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy,” an Amazon statement reads.
The Wall Street Journal reports that investments will be made in a wide variety of sectors, including logistics, energy, manufacturing, the circular economy and agriculture. “Companies from around the world of all sizes and stages will be considered, from pre-product startups to well-established enterprises,” said Bezos.
The project will be the beginning of a longterm pledge to fight climate change – and a welcome PR break for Amazon, which has fought countless accusations of employee abuse and constructive dismissal amid the Coronavirus pandemic. In 2018 the company announced it emitted 44.4m metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents into the atmosphere, around the same as the country of Norway.