A climate fund founded by Jeff Bezos, in the single largest philanthropic pledge to fight global warming, is lagging far behind its spending goals.
Officials at the Bezos Earth Fund said they remain committed to disbursing $10 billion by 2030. With four years left on the timeline, however, only 28% of the promised funds have been allocated so far.
That leaves more than $7 billion, suggesting the need for a surge in grantmaking under Chief Executive Officer Tom Taylor, who took over leadership last year after running Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa division. Yet spending by the Earth Fund dropped to $183 million in 2025 before ticking up to at least $400 million this year, according to fund officials.
In interviews and statements, Earth Fund executives reaffirmed their plan to spend $10 billion by the end of the decade. “Many of our strategies remain the same,” a spokesperson said, citing a range of existing efforts to transform food systems and protect 30% of land and sea, as well as newer programs in sustainable fashion and AI.
“We take the time before getting into an area to understand it and make sure we’re having the greatest impact that we possibly can,” said Kelly Levin, chief of science, data and systems change at Bezos Earth Fund. “Are we supporting the right organizations at the right time? Can we measure the impacts in terms of the benefits to nature and the climate?”
It’s an approach fund officials described as prioritizing long-term impact rather than dollars deployed. It doesn’t encompass new strategies for accelerating spending, which is now at roughly half the pace needed to meet the Earth Fund’s 2030 target.
Slow spending by one of the deepest-pocketed climate philanthropies comes at a challenging moment. Efforts to counteract global warming with public programs and charitable giving have come under scrutiny and attack by the Trump administration, which has dismantled many clean-energy incentives and environmental regulations. The pivot has upended several initiatives supported by the Earth Fund shortly after its founding in 2020.
Early on, for example, the fund committed more than $37 million to help electrify every school bus in the US by 2030. At the time, the grant dovetailed with federal incentives to boost electric school buses. But the US government has since delayed or halted its support, and subsequent grants by the Earth Fund have amounted to $6 million. The proportion of electric school buses in the nation’s fleet now barely exceeds 1%.
In public appearances, Earth Fund officials acknowledge a void that even the largest donors can’t bridge. “Philanthropy’s job is not to fill in when the government disappears,” said Taylor during a March panel at an oil industry conference. “We’re a pretty big fund, but I’m not filling in for the US government. It’s impossible.”
There’s been tumult across the relatively small climate philanthropy sector, with some big donors pulling back. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, run by Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, is winding down its climate portfolio, according to a spokesperson for the organization. Renowned climate investor and donor Bill Gates has trimmed staff at Breakthrough Energy, his climate organization, while pulling back on advocacy work and halting some investments. Breakthrough officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Not all signs are grim. The Sergey Brin Family Foundation and Steve Ballmer’s Rainier Climate have quietly increased their climate giving in recent years. Bezos’ ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, disbursed more than $1 billion to environmental groups in 2025, a large increase from previous years, according to a Bloomberg analysis of her disclosures. Attempts to reach Scott through her family office were unsuccessful; Brin’s foundation and Rainier declined to comment.
Climate giving has never exceeded about 2% of total philanthropy and may be in decline, said Randall Kempner, executive director of the Climate Philanthropy Catalyst Coalition. “It is certainly a less hospitable environment for climate philanthropy today than it was prior to Trump’s election,” he said.
To avoid clashing with the Trump administration, some donors are avoiding areas like environmental justice or fossil fuel phaseouts. Since returning to office, Trump has repeatedly threatened to revoke the tax-exempt status of nonprofits he dislikes, vowed to block funding for groups deemed to undermine the national interest and to investigate progressive philanthropist George Soros.
“The bark has been bigger than the bite thus far,” said Kempner, “but there’s fear out there.”
Elgin and Alexander write for Bloomberg.
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