Bezos’ $10 billion for the climate is a gift to Amazon

Over the past two decades, billionaire Bill Gates has been a major figure in elite philanthropy. His foundation has spent billions on agriculture research and development projects worldwide, with the vast majority of it channelled to promote genetically engineered seeds and animals, pesticides and other technologies. With little to show for it, he’s become an arch-enemy to food sovereignty movements who accuse him of paving the way for corporations to take over local seed and food systems, especially in Africa.[1]

Another tech billionaire philanthropist, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has so far escaped such scrutiny. He is new to the charity scene. But in 2020, he jumped in with a bang. He pledged to give away US$10 billion over 10 years to address climate and environmental issues through a new foundation, the Bezos Earth Fund. Food and agriculture are priorities for Bezos’ philanthropy. And, for the most part, he follows the same techno-fix path championed by Gates. The Earth Fund is a big financier of seed banks run by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, and it funds the breeding of climate-friendly plants and animals.[2] Bezos, like Gates, is also embracing lab-made meats as a climate solution.[3]

But there is one striking difference between these two agro-philanthropists. While Gates has cut his personal ties to Microsoft, Bezos remains deeply enmeshed in both his company Amazon and his foundation. This seems to have implications for what his foundation supports.

Bezos is the largest shareholder of Amazon, holding 8% of its shares, which are currently worth over US$230 billion.[4] While he stepped down as CEO in 2021, he is still the Executive Chairman and is actively involved in many of the company’s programmes. He is also at the helm of the Bezos Fund as its Chairman (with his new wife as VP). In July 2025, he appointed one of his closest associates, a former senior executive at Amazon, as CEO -- someone with seemingly no previous experience in philanthropy or the environment.[5]

It is not just an overlap in people at Amazon and the Bezos fund. There is also an overlap in agendas, especially in the contentious work they are both doing to promote and develop markets for carbon offsets.

Amazon is very vocal about its commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. In 2019, it launched an initiative embracing this goal called The Pledge and got 560 companies to sign on to it.[6]

But since then, it has been moving in the opposite direction. According to its own calculations, Amazon’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions ballooned by 53.6% between 2018 and 2024.[7] The company points to reductions in its “emissions intensity”, but these are eclipsed by its growth and the increasing use of energy-heavy AI. Amazon's cloud computing business is, after all, larger and more profitable than its online shopping business. Today, Amazon is by far the worst climate polluter among the world's big tech companies.[8]

To get around the contradiction between its growth and its carbon emission goals, Amazon intends to offset or, in its words, “neutralise” its supply-chain emissions with carbon credits, mainly produced by planting trees or conserving forests.[9] Last year, the company joined Walmart, Bayer and a few other corporations to buy US$180 million worth of carbon credits from the Brazilian state of Pará. The credits were generated under a programme called the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance (LEAF) Coalition that these corporations launched in 2021 with the governments of the US, UK and Norway.[10] Brazilian federal prosecutors are now challenging the sale of the credits in court.[11]

But Amazon is not just buying carbon credits. It is creating the infrastructure to produce them. Last year, Amazon established its own carbon credit certification standard for tree planting projects, and launched a carbon credit trading platform where its suppliers can buy Amazon-certified carbon credits.[12] This is the first time a global corporation has taken such a step. It has also started working directly with carbon offset project developers to implement its ABACUS standard on the ground, in places like the Ucayali and Loreto regions of Peru.[13]

Jamey Mulligan, head of carbon neutralisation for Amazon, says that there is already a shift from carbon credits from avoided deforestation, like those the LEAF Coalition is supporting, to “tree-based restoration” projects that can remove carbon from the atmosphere. He says these have more “integrity”, and he expects tree planting projects to be the dominant source of carbon credits for Amazon by 2040.[14] Already there’s a boom in such projects across the global South, with money pouring in from big tech companies, and this is driving land grabs and violent conflicts.[15] Yet, to get to the kind of scale that can make a significant dent in Amazon’s emissions tally, the company would need way more of these projects, involving millions more hectares of land.

The Bezos fund has been on a similar mission to promote carbon markets since its inception. The fund’s first CEO, Andrew Steer, came from the US NGO World Resources Institute and before that the World Bank, where he championed carbon credits as a way to bring in private sector finance to protect and restore nature. As CEO of the Bezos fund, he's repeatedly argued that companies should be allowed to offset half of their supply chain (Scope 3) emissions as part of their net-zero commitments.[16]

This stance put the fund at odds with the Science-Based Targets initiative, the main organisation supporting companies in setting emissions reduction targets in line with the Paris Agreement – and a grantee of the Bezos fund. In 2024, shortly after SBTi dropped Amazon for failing to comply with reduction targets and then refused to cede to pressure to allow companies to use carbon offsets as part of their SBTi commitments, the Bezos fund stopped supporting it.[17]

The Bezos fund is essentially pursuing two tracks in its push for carbon markets, which mimic Amazon’s efforts. The first is to work with corporations, including Amazon, to develop and promote standards for carbon markets that are aligned with corporate interests and that can increase global acceptance.[18] Amazon and NGOs funded by Bezos are advisors to carbon credit certification bodies, like Verra.[19] The Bezos fund is also one of the largest donors to the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), an international body made up of NGOs and companies that establishes global standards for “high integrity carbon credits”.[20] Staff from the Bezos fund and Amazon are active in its working groups, and big NGOs funded by Bezos, like the World Resources Institute, sit on the board.[21] Both the Bezos fund and Amazon say that Amazon’s new ABACUS label is complimentary to the work of the ICVCM.[22]

The other track that the Bezos fund is pursuing in line with Amazon’s carbon market ambitions is the development of systems for monitoring and verifying the carbon sequestered by tree planting and grassland management projects. Projects can only have “integrity” if they can demonstrate that carbon is being sequestered in the trees and the soils. And they can only be scaled up if this can be done in a cost-effective way.

One of the Bezos fund’s biggest projects is the Land & Carbon Lab that it established with the World Resources Institute, in collaboration with Meta, the owner of Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram. The fund has put at least US$62 million into it so far. The Lab uses AI and satellite data to map and monitor “as comprehensively as possible all relevant sources and sinks of GHGs from the land sector.”[23]

The Lab is building its capacity for satellite monitoring and verification through a major tree planting initiative in Africa that is also funded by the Bezos fund. This project, known as TerraFund for AFR100, provides grants and loans to hundreds of small tree planting projects across Africa, led by both companies and NGOs.[24] Some of these projects involve the production of carbon credits, although most do not. But they are all contributing to the development of carbon markets by supplying the Land & Carbon Lab with critical on-the-ground data needed for the development of its satellite monitoring and verification system.”[25]

In January 2025, Land & Carbon Lab and Meta released an AI-powered, high resolution map of global trees, covering 50 million km2 at 1-meter resolution. The map makes it possible to monitor the planting and growth of trees at the “project level” and then estimate how much carbon these trees are storing.[26] With the map, a tech company in Silicon Valley that buys carbon credits from a project in rural Ghana can now monitor its investment in real time. Meta, which like Amazon is purchasing carbon removal credits to offset its emissions, says the map and other technologies for monitoring and verifying carbon sequestration are “an essential component of Meta’s carbon removal strategy.”[27]

To be fair, the Bezos fund is not only funding projects that advance the interests of Amazon. For instance, the fund’s support to grassroots initiatives for environmental justice, especially in the US, is impressive, and seemingly disconnected from the interests of Amazon or other Bezos companies.[28]

The fund’s involvement in agriculture, however, does bend towards Amazon's objectives. The managing director of the fund’s Nature Solutions and Food programmes, Cristián Samper, says their involvement in this area is primarily driven by a desire to free up more land for nature restoration and conservation. That is why they are increasingly focused on cattle, which occupy huge amounts of land around the world. The fund is spending heavily on technology and breeding to increase the production of beef per hectare and on shifting diets to alternative proteins, whether plant-based or lab-cultured.[29] Its Land & Carbon Lab is also developing a mapping system for carbon in grasslands. On a panel organised by the Lab, Amazon’s Mulligan emphasised the "immense opportunity" to convert “hundreds of millions of hectares” of pasture lands to forest restoration projects.[30]

Along the same lines, the fund's also a key backer of efforts at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) to breed forage crops to sequester more carbon and it funds its seed bank-- the largest collection of tropical forage grass seeds in the world.[31] CIAT's hybrid forage varieties are licensed exclusively to Latin America's top private forage seed company, Grupo Papalotla, which is partnering with its new shareholder, the Japanese seed and pesticide company Sumitomo, to develop "climate-smart livestock solutions" in Brazil.[32]

One thing is clear: Jeff Bezos is in control of a US$2.4 trillion company and a US$10 billion foundation that are completely aligned in their efforts to develop and legitimise carbon offset markets as a solution to the climate crisis.

Carbon offsets are a dangerous distraction from actual emissions reductions. The big buyers of carbon credits these days are Amazon and other big tech companies trying to dodge criticism for the enormous increase in emissions generated by their AI data centres.[33] This is not only creating a smokescreen for these companies to keep polluting. It is also fuelling a rush for forests, farmlands and coastlines that is already displacing communities and causing conflicts across the globe.[34]

The Bezos Earth Fund is the largest philanthropy focused on climate and a hugely influential player in international processes, like the UN climate and biodiversity COPs. It is half way through its 10-year lifespan, but only a quarter of the way through its US$10 billion grant. This means its presence in climate circles and its push for carbon markets will likely expand under its new CEO, Tom Taylor, a 22-year veteran from Amazon's AI division.

Now is a critical moment for more attention and investigation into the conflicts of interest, and myriad agendas, driving Bezos’ philanthropy. He and other tech billionaires are increasingly working together to assert dominance in how our societies function, despite what the rest of us want. We must see through their philanthropy schemes and expose how these fit within their larger ambitions.

[1] US Right to Know, "Critiques of Gates Foundation’s agricultural interventions in Africa", September 2024: https://usrtk.org/bill-gates/critiques-of-gates-foundation/

[2] CGIAR, "Future Seeds receives USD 17 million from Bezos Earth Fund", March 2022: https://alliancebioversityciat.org/stories/future-seeds-receives-usd-17-million-bezos-earth-fund

[3] Bezos Earth Fund, "Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein Launches at Imperial With $30M Funding", June 2024: https://www.bezosearthfund.org/news-and-insights/bezos-center-for-sustainable-protein-launches-at-imperial-with-30m-funding

[4] Adam Levine. "Jeff Bezos Sells More Amazon Stock. He Isn’t Finished", Barron's, June 2025: https://www.barrons.com/articles/jeff-bezos-sells-amazon-stock-c94ca7fd

[5] Inside Philanthropy, "9 things to know about Bezos Earth Fund's Tom Taylor", July 2025: https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/9-things-to-know-about-bezos-earth-funds-new-leader-tom-taylor

[6] See Amazon's website: https://www.aboutamazon.com/planet/climate-pledge

[7] Amazon, "Amazon Sustainability Report", 2024: https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/2024-amazon-sustainability-report.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com

[8] Kenza Bryan, Camilla Hodgson and Jana Tauschinski, "Big Tech’s bid to rewrite the rules on net zero", FT, August 2024: https://www.ft.com/content/2d6fc319-2165-42fb-8de1-0edf1d765be3

[9] Amazon, "Carbon Neutralization Amazon’s Approach to Neutralizing Remaining Emissions on the Path to Net Zero": https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/carbon-neutralization.pdf

[10] LEAF Coalition website: https://www.leafcoalition.org/

[11] Eduardo Goulart, "Brazil Prosecutors Move to Halt $180M Amazon Carbon Deal", OCCRP, June 2025: https://www.occrp.org/en/news/brazilian-prosecutors-seek-to-void-180-million-carbon-credit-deal-in-the-amazon

[12] Banja Faecks, "Amazon Dime: Selling the climate short with carbon credits", Carbon Market Watch, April 2025: https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2025/04/03/amazon-dime-selling-the-climate-short-with-carbon-credits/

[13] Verra, "ABACUS Label Guidance, v1", July 2024: https://verra.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ABACUS-Label-Guidance-v1.0.pdf; Viridis Terra, "Viridis Terra Collaborates with Amazon on Innovative Agroforestry Project in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest", January 2024: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/viridis-terra-collaborates-with-amazon-on-innovative-agroforestry-project-in-the-peruvian-amazon-rainforest-849817454.html

[14] Panel presentation at the Land & Carbon Lab session at COP27, "Unlocking Finance for Nature: Towards Scalable Carbon Monitoring Solutions", November 2022: https://landcarbonlab.org/events/unlocking-finance-for-nature-towards-scalable-carbon-monitoring-solutions/

[15] GRAIN, "From land grabbers to carbon cowboys: a new scramble for community lands takes off", September 2024: https://grain.org/e/7190

[16] See, for instance, the interview with Steer on the Cleaning Up Podcast, Episode 192: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7sr4gGjZPA

[17] Phoebe Weston, "Jeff Bezos fund ends support for climate group amid fears billionaires ‘bowing down’ to Trump", February 2025: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/06/jeff-bezos-climate-group-trump-bezos-earth-fund-science-based-targets-initiative-decarbonisation-aoe

[18] See also the Financial Times investigation into how Amazon and other tech companies are trying to rewrite the rules of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol when it comes to renewable energy certificates. FT, "Big Tech’s bid to rewrite the rules on net zero," August 2024: https://www.ft.com/content/2d6fc319-2165-42fb-8de1-0edf1d765be3

[19] Verra website: https://verra.org/about/overview/advisory-groups-committees/

[20] See ICVCM website: https://icvcm.org/our-funders/.

[21] See ICVCM website: https://icvcm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Meet-the-integrity-council-Webinar-Slides-Meet-the-Integrity-Council-220419-External.pdf. Jamey Mulligan of Amazon represents the "buyers" on the ICVCM Category Working Group: https://icvcm.org/how-we-assess-categories-of-carbon-credits/.

[22] Global Carbon Fund, "Amazon’s Own Carbon Offset Standard Sparks Concerns Over Market Confusion", July 2024: https://globalcarbonfund.com/carbon-news/amazons-own-carbon-offset-standard-sparks-concerns-over-market-confusion/

[23] "How Land & Carbon Lab is Monitoring Land’s Greenhouse Gas Impacts", November 2024: https://landcarbonlab.org/insights/land-carbon-lab-monitoring-greenhouse-gas-impacts/

[24] See website: https://www.africa.terramatch.org/

[25] "We’re going to be financing about 150 of what we call aggregators. And they are either companies or NGOs or institutions. And what they will do is work with maybe a thousand farmers or community groups that do the work. We will need a thousand shape files which we will then insert or WRI will then insert into Land & Carbon Lab. And we will be able to see, three years from now whether restoration is actually happening... We need to bring private money in and that will only be possible if the private sector knows what’s actually happening. (…) That will not be possible, nor should it be possible unless you know how much carbon is being sucked down from heaven through the magic of photosynthesis.” Presentation by Andrew Steer to the Land & Carbon Lab session at COP27, "Unlocking Finance for Nature: Towards Scalable Carbon Monitoring Solutions", November 2022: https://landcarbonlab.org/events/unlocking-finance-for-nature-towards-scalable-carbon-monitoring-solutions/

[26] Carboncredits.com, "Meta and WRI Unveiled AI-Powered Global Tree Canopy Map", January 2025: https://carboncredits.com/ai-powered-global-tree-canopy-map-unveiled-by-meta-wri-for-forest-carbon-credit/

[27] Meta, "Using Artificial Intelligence to Map the Earth’s Forests", April 2024: https://sustainability.atmeta.com/blog/2024/04/22/using-artificial-intelligence-to-map-the-earths-forests/

[28] Bezos Earth Fund website: https://www.bezosearthfund.org/our-programs/environmental-justice

[29] Interview on The Founder Spirit podcast, episode 55, June 2025: https://www.thefounderspirit.com/episodes/cristian-samper

[30] Panel presentation at the Land & Carbon Lab session at COP27, "Unlocking Finance for Nature: Towards Scalable Carbon Monitoring Solutions", November 2022: https://landcarbonlab.org/events/unlocking-finance-for-nature-towards-scalable-carbon-monitoring-solutions/

[31] See https://carbonsequestration.co/forages/

[32] Igrow News, "Sumitomo Corporation of Americas and Grupo Papalotla Partner to Advance Climate-Smart Livestock Systems," July 2025: https://igrownews.com/sumitomo-corporation-of-americas-latest-news/

[33] Helena Horton, "Google’s emissions up 51% as AI electricity demand derails efforts to go green," Guardian, June 2025: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/27/google-emissions-ai-electricity-demand-derail-efforts-green

[34] GRAIN, "From land grabbers to carbon cowboys: a new scramble for community lands takes off", September 2024: https://grain.org/e/7190