Bright Ideas for Climate Leadership

This past week, Jeff Bezos, the richest person in the world with a net worth of USD 130.9 billion (as of checking on 21 February 2020), announced a USD 10 billion commitment to address climate change. Today, his staggering net worth puts Jeff Bezos just behind Hungary in the world GDP rankings for 2019. Hungary's GDP of USD 140 billion puts them at number 56.

That is incredible.

One person's net worth is more than the individual GDP of 131 other countries. So, Jeff Bezos as a person ranks just ahead of resource rich Angola which comes in at USD 122 billion.

I cannot quite get my head around that.

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Nevertheless, the green heart beating in me is very happy to see this kind of climate leadership from someone who has the ability to really move the dial on climate change mitigation.

For me, this is the second noteworthy headline-making climate change philanthropic commitment in recent years. In September 2018 at the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS), 29 philanthropists pledged USD 4 billion until 2023 focused on climate change mitigation. The focus of that 4 billion was on "healthy energy systems, inclusive economic growth, sustainable communities, land and ocean stewardship and transformative climate investments."

Definitely impressive and benchmark setting. But also, spread across 29 organizations.

One of the benefits to Bezos' effort is that it will come from one person - reducing administrative friction and leakage.

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Of course, according to many armchair commentators (including myself) Amazon has a lot to answer for with respect to the climate. In September 2019, Amazon disclosed its carbon emissions for the first time. A whopping 44.4 million metric tons! That means that an internet technology shopping platform emits about as much as a large power company. Or, according to Our World in Data, 1.4 million metric tons more than Hong Kong did in 2017.

I know: Amazon is more than a platform - it ships and delivers packages and must operate and cool all of the cloud-computer server farms that run its platform. Still, it's a - ahem - large emission footprint.

I read an article that suggested Bezos has used this move as "atonement for the environmental sins that made him the richest man in the world".

I don't know. I have no idea what his motives are - he can say whatever he wants in whatever statement he wants and none of us will ever know what's really in his heart.

In the end, I am not sure I care what his motives are really. As Greta says, our house is on fire. We need to act now.

If Bezos' 10 billion can kickstart serious innovations and actions to help prevent the disaster scenarios from coming true, who am I to judge what his motives are?

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P.S. 10 billion is 7.6% of Bezos' total net worth. Imagine what he could do if he pledged 20%? He'd still have 104 billion and would be the world's second richest man.

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