There are two types of leverage open to Jeff Bezos: political and technological
, the boss of Amazon and the world’s richest man, has long had a reputation as a peculiarly frugal plutocrat. A quarter of a century after Amazon was founded, the firm, now worth over a trillion dollars, still does not pay dividends to its shareholders. Lately, though, his personal purse-strings have loosened. Earlier this month Mr Bezos paid $165m for a mansion in Beverly Hills. On February 18th he announced that he would be spending $10bn setting up the Bezos Earth Fund.
In the context of climate change, $10bn is both a lot and a little. The Earth Fund will have to hand out at least $500m a year to avoid tax penalties, and Mr Bezos could add to the pot. The next-biggest climate donor, the Hewlett Foundation, disburses around $120m a year in the area. But the scale of the problem dwarfs even Mr Bezos’s vast resources.
In technology, progress will come from putting large amounts in well-chosen areas outside the mainstream. There is little point in ploughing money into solar and wind power, or electric vehicles. Better to focus on taking the risk out of things which the world needs but markets will not yet invest in. Building full-scale pilot plants for emissions-free steel-smelting and concrete-making would be helpful.
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