Bezos gives $19M for corporate greenhouse gas emissions tracking

The Bezos Earth Fund is donating more than $19 million to help revamp two of the best-known international organizations behind corporate greenhouse gas emissions tracking and public disclosures. The fund, a philanthropic organization established in 2020 by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is splitting its commitment between the two groups. More than $9 million in grant funding will go to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, an international organization that sets standards for measuring greenhouse gas emissions from both the public and private sector. GHG Protocol initially formed as a partnership between the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. The grant will be used to help GHG Protocol “update and clarify existing standards” and to develop new guidance, among other things, according to a press release. An additional $9.9 million in funding is being directed to CDP, a nonprofit organization that operates a global system where investors, companies, cities, states, and regions can publicly disclose the environmental impacts of their activities. CDP will use the grant to update its processes and systems, the Earth Fund said. “The global demand for greenhouse gas accounting and disclosure is skyrocketing and must be scaled and modernized to deliver needed standards, tools and training,” Andrew Steer, president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund, said in a statement. On the same day, the Bezos Earth Fund also announced it will give nearly $10 million to Cornell University to support a project to develop low-cost virtual fencing that would deter livestock from leaving their designated grazing areas and wandering into forests. The new grants are part of a larger $10 billion climate pledge made by Jeff Bezos that has so far heavily prioritized conservation of natural resources and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Through this funding, the organization is “building out our work around corporate accountability,” spokesperson Stacie Cobos told Devex in an email. In recent years, the Bezos Earth Fund also has provided a $18 million grant to the Science Based Targets Initiative, which sets standards for corporate climate targets. And it gave $11 million to The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market and the Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity Initiative. The Bezos Earth Fund is pushing for stronger checks on corporate greenhouse gas emissions even as Amazon, the online shopping behemoth, faces scrutiny over its own carbon emissions, which reportedly rose 18% in 2021. Generally, global greenhouse gas emissions “have continued to increase,” the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in its latest findings released Monday. IPCC has warned of potentially catastrophic climate impacts if global emissions are not halved by the end of the decade.