Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and the world’s richest man, said that he is committing US$10 billion to a new fund to tackle climate change.  In a post to his 1.4 million followers on Instagram, the e-commerce tycoon said the Bezos Earth Fund would “fund scientists, activists, NGOs — any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world.”  His new foundation would begin issuing grants later this year.

“Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet,” said Bezos, whose net worth is estimated to be around $130 billion.  Amazon, in December 2019, said its workforce had hit 750,000.

Hundreds of Amazon employees last month signed a blog criticizing the online retail giant’s climate policies and demanding it do more to tackle climate change.  Amazon has been accused of creating vast amounts of waste from the packaging it uses for doorstep deliveries, as well as for the greenhouse gas emissions from huge fleets of vehicles.  The company has also been denounced over its carbon footprint because of the high energy consumption of its server farms for its lucrative cloud computing activities.

Last September, Bezos said Amazon would pledge to become carbon neutral by 2040 and vowed that the company would order 100,000 electric delivery trucks.