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Jeff Bezos on Monday pledged to give $1 billion to global conservation efforts, as part of a $10 billion effort to battle climate change.
In a statement, the Bezos Earth Fund said the $1 billion will play a key role in carrying out the “30×30” commitment — protecting 30% of the planet’s land and sea by 2030 “to prevent mass extinctions and bolster resilience to climate change.”
The Earth Fund plans to give about $1 billion a year over the next decade to climate and conservation causes. Efforts will focus on Africa’s Congo Basin, South America’s tropical Andes and tropical parts of the Pacific Ocean.
“The natural world is not better today than it was 500 years ago, when we enjoyed unspoiled forests, clean rivers, and the pristine air of the pre-industrial age,” Bezos, the Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
founder who stepped down as CEO earlier this year, said in a statement. “We can and must reverse this anomaly. By coming together with the right focus and ingenuity, we can have both the benefits of our modern lives and a thriving natural world.”
The $1 billion allocation was praised by world leaders such as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and U.S. climate envoy John Kerry.
Bezos is currently the world’s second-wealthiest individual, with a fortune of about $194 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. Earlier this month, Bezos pledged to donate $203.7 million in Earth Fund grants to a number of climate-justice organizations by the end of the year
