Bezos pledges fortune to fight climate change
AMAZON founder Jeff Bezos has vowed to give away most of his £105billion fortune.
The fourth-richest person in the world, 58, said he wanted to support the fight against climate change and those who can unify humanity and heal deep social and political divisions.
In an interview beside his partner Lauren Sanchez, the tycoon said they are “building the capacity to be able to give away this money”. Mr Bezos added: “‘The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way. It’s not easy, building Amazon was not easy.
“It took a lot of hard work, a bunch of very smart teammates and I’m finding that philanthropy is very similar – it’s not easy, it’s very hard.
“There are a bunch of ways that I think you could do ineffective things, too.
“So you have to think about it carefully and you have to have brilliant people on the team.”
Mr Bezos declined to say exactly how much he would be giving away, or where it is specifically to be spent.
He had previously been criticised for failing to sign the Giving Pledge, which has seen hundreds of the world’s richest people commit to donating the majority of their wealth to charity.
Country music star and philanthropist Dolly Parton was awarded a £84.8million prize by Mr Bezos to use for charitable causes yesterday.
He said that Ms Parton can donate the cash to any charities of her choice.
Mr Bezos said: “Look at what she’s done and how she’s led her life. The way she’s done it is by doing bold things, always with civility and kindness. “She’s a unifier, we have big problems in the world and the way big problems are dealt with is you have to work together.’ Ms Sanchez added: ‘When you think of Dolly, everyone smiles.
“All she wants to do is bring light into other people’s world.
“That’s all, and so we couldn’t have thought of someone better than to give this award to.”
Mr Bezos’s approach to donating money drastically differs from his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott.
She gave away around £3.4billion to 465 organisations in less than a year.