Media coverage of Jeff Bezos and his $10 billion Earth Fund or Elon Musk and his $100 million prize for the ‘best carbon capture’ might make you think that billionaires are doing their utmost to combat climate change. But you’re likely doing more as an average person than they are - despite the hype.
First of all your typical billionaire personally emits “one million times more greenhouse gases per year than the average person on Earth” and invariably the ways that they make their vast fortunes are from “high-emitting corporations that foster a global culture of excessive consumerism.” And billionaires are notorious for using “philanthropy as a way to publicly boost their own reputations, while they privately argue against heightened government regulation.”
To see further details on how philanthropy for climate change measures up check out the philanthropy report from ClimateWorks.