Billionaires Shouldn't Fill Gov. Climate Funding Gaps - Guy Who Fronts Billionaire's Climate Fund
Billionaires can not be expected to make up for climate finance gaps left by rich countries that fail to deliver on promises to the developing world, the head of the Bezos Earth Fund has said. The Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, created a $10bn (£8.8bn) grant to protect the Earth’s environment in 2020. Andrew Steer, the president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund, oversees this alongside the billionaire, his partner Lauren Sanchez and the fund’s board.
Speaking to the Guardian before Cop27, with countries including the UK and US having failed to make good on climate finance promises and often offering loans instead of grants to poorer nations, Steer said it was not the role of philanthropy to fill in the resulting funding gaps.
“We want to resist simply replacing [government money]. That would not be good,” he said. “I don’t think we should buy into the idea that we’re somehow an alternative to government, because governments have an obligation and they are not living up to it to the extent they should. “In the case of coal decommissioning in South Africa, for example, it’s not our job to come in and replace any of the $8.5bn (£7.5bn) that governments committed last year [at Cop26].”
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Steer said the Bezos Earth Fund often seeks partnerships with governments on projects it funds, making its donation contingent on finance from a partner government. The money so far has been used to fund conservation projects in the DRC and the northern Andes, and improve datasets useful to climate researchers, among other initiatives.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/07/billionaires-should-not-make-up-climate-finance-gaps-says-bezos-earth-fund-head
