The World's Wealthiest People are today wealthier than ever before, and as a result, their carbon footprint is increasing. While some of the world's wealthiest people are fighting climate change, others are not.
According to a recent United Nations assessment, the richest 1% are responsible for 15% of global emissions. What are the world's top ten wealthiest people doing to mitigate the worst effects of climate change?
It is not a perfect image. Jeff Bezos made massive pledges, including $10 billion for the climate and billions for Amazon to spend on reducing its carbon footprint. Bill Gates has been actively interested in this matter. In February, he published a book titled How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, is well-known for his views on climate change and has been a driving force behind the development of numerous automakers' electric vehicles. Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett is opposed to the company acknowledging climate concerns.
Their enterprises are more likely to make public commitments to sustainability than their personal vows. Many businesses have joined the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), a collaboration of worldwide organizations such as the United Nations Global Compass that promotes and reviews business pledges to net zero carbon targets. Experts anticipate that such limits will keep the world from warming by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. The SBTi has set two deadlines. The initial goal is to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and then achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Companies that commit to the SBTi have two years to submit their aims.
The billionaires' additional investments and charity projects, as well as their personal opinions, round out their commitment to sustainability and a carbon-neutral future. This is a look at the world's top ten wealthiest people.
1. Jeff Bezos
In recent years, the world's wealthiest individual has made numerous vows to address climate change. These include Amazon's Climate Pledge, which he co-founded with the Global Optimism organization, as well as his Bezos Earth Fund. To date, 104 firms have signed the Climate Pledge. It intends to cut net carbon emissions by 2040. Amazon established a $2 billion Climate Fund to invest in breakthrough technologies required to achieve a zero-carbon economy. Amazon claims to be the world's largest purchaser of renewable energy. It has established internal goals such as deploying 100,000 electric vehicles for delivery by 2030 and supporting carbon-cutting technology in cloud computing. However, it has yet to submit its sustainability targets to other umbrella groups, such as the SBTi, to which it committed in May 2020.
Amazon's most current sustainability report, issued in June 2020, provides an insight into the scope of the e-commerce giant's carbon emission problem. Amazon's carbon footprint climbed by 15% as it expanded (revenue increased by 22%). Amazon calculates its footprint in a different way. The term "carbon intensity" refers to the amount of CO2 emitted per dollar of gross merchandise sales. Amazon states that its carbon intensity index was 5% lower in 2019 than in 2018. Amazon reports that its carbon intensity index decreased by 5% in 2019 compared to 2018.
Bezos was one of 20 renowned investors who founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures in 2016 with the goal of investing at least $1 billion in firms developing zero-emission solutions. In 2017, Bezos established the $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund. He stated in November that he had donated $790 million to 16 climate change charities. This is almost 0.4% of his current net worth of $194.4 billion. The five groups that received the greatest gifts (each receiving $100 million) were all well-known NGOs in the sustainability and environmental areas. The World Wildlife Fund, The World Resource Institute, The Natural Resources Defense Council, and The Nature Conservancy are among them.
2. Bernard Arnault
Arnault is the undisputed king of luxury. He has developed a 75-brand empire for LVMH, including Louis Vuitton and Givenchy. Jewelry, fashion, cosmetics, and even a boat manufacturer are all experiencing significant sustainability concerns.
Through its LVMH Initiatives For the Environment initiative (LIFE), which was rebranded "LIFE 360" in December, LVMH frequently speaks with a single voice in sustainability. It established goals such as using 100% renewable energy by 2020 and removing all fossil-based virgin packaging by 2026. In 2017, LVMH stated that it would cut its carbon footprint by 25% by 2020.
LVMH has declined to sign the Fashion Pact. This Pact, sponsored by Kering, pledges its signatories to implementing United Nations ideals. Fashion Code: By 2025, we will have sourced 25% of our materials with low environmental effect. By 2025, renewable energy will account for 50% of total energy consumption. 100% by 2030. These targets, according to Arnault, are not feasible for LVMH's business, and "we prefer deeds than pacts."
Arnault also owns Hermes, a French fashion company, and Carrefour, a grocery business, both of which are signatories to Kering's Fashion Pact. Hermes agreed to the SBTi in December but has yet to specify its goals. Carrefour has likewise committed to the SBTi and set goals.
It is unknown what Arnault's own contributions to and commitment to sustainability are. Arnault's criticism of Greta Thunberg (a teenage climate activist) in 2019 provided an insight of Europe's richest man's attitude toward sustainability. He stated that Greta was "completely submitting to catastrophism," but added, "I favor positive ideas that allow us to move towards a more optimistic position."
3. Elon Musk
Elon Musk became a billionaire for the first time in 2012 when he sold shares in Tesla Electric Cars and SolarCity, two companies that supply alternatives to fossil fuels. Musk also used his influence to fight for a carbon tax (which the United States does not have) and to oppose climate denialism by resigning from a White House advisory role following President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.
Tesla's first impact report in 2019 details the company's global carbon emissions in 2017. Rather than defining goals, it focuses on how Tesla can conserve energy and reduce waste. Some pundits, like Bloomberg Opinion blogger David Fickel, have recently chastised the company for neglecting to disclose its carbon emissions and energy use, as well as failing to identify its expanding carbon impact.
Musk is still concentrating on carbon removal. Musk contributed $100 million to XPrize in February to support a four-year competition that began accepting submissions on April 22 to develop ways to "collectively meet the 10 gigatonnes per annum carbon reduction target by 2030."
The donation was given by Musk and his organization. The website just has one HTML page that lists five areas, one of which being renewable energy research and advocacy. Musk's charitable contributions were well recognized. Musk stated that a $38,900 donation to Republican legislators amounted to 0.5% of his total donation to the Sierra Club environmental organization.
4. Bill Gates
Microsoft has set September 2019 targets of sourcing 100% renewable energy by 2030 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of sales by 30% by 2030. This is a huge improvement over 2017. Microsoft also agreed to sign the Amazon Climate Pledge.
Despite losing his status as the world's richest person in recent years, Gates remains one of the most vocal billionaires when it comes to climate change investing and philanthropy. He's also the best-selling author of How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.
Microsoft, which made Gates a fortune, has now matched his cofounder's environmental efforts. It established one of the most ambitious climate goals in the tech world: carbon neutrality by 2030. This entails eliminating more carbon from the atmosphere than the corporation produces. Microsoft's objective is to have zero carbon emissions in its history by 2050. Gates stepped down from the Microsoft board of directors in March 2020.
While world leaders were negotiating the Paris Agreement in 2015, Gates offered $2 billion to climate change efforts. He also gathered other business leaders, including Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, to form the Breakthrough Energie Coalition. With a $1 billion budget, the Breakthrough Energy Ventures investment arm focused on zero-carbon technology was formed the next year. It has invested in 40 firms and raised another $1 billion in January. Gates told Forbes earlier this year that he plans to invest $2 billion on zero-carbon technologies over the next five years.
5. Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook declared that it had achieved net zero emissions for its energy purchases as well as its own emissions. It also announced that by 2030, it hoped to achieve a net-zero target for indirect emissions from Facebook's operations. Facebook indicated that it supports Science Based Targets, which it pledged to support in September but has yet to submit targets.
Renewable energy is at the heart of Facebook's sustainability efforts. In 2019, Facebook claimed to be the largest business buyer of renewable energy. It has declared, however, that it aims to invest in carbon removal projects and other natural-based alternatives.
Facebook's recent attempts to combat disinformation on the platform—a U-turn by Zuckerberg, who earlier refused to play the role of factchecker—will now encompass climate change with the creation of a new area dedicated to dispelling climate fallacies.
In 2015, Zuckerberg announced that he supported Gates' Breakthrough Energy Coalition. It is unclear, however, how much he contributed. In 2015, he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, founded The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a limited-liability business for advocacy and humanitarian purposes to which they have given 99% of their wealth.
So far, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has committed little more than $2 billion to various programs. While none of the foundation's areas of interest are primarily focused on climate change, some award recipients prioritize sustainability.
6. Warren Buffett
Buffett's 2015 statement in a letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders on the likelihood that climate calamities could improve insurance company earnings has been criticized as a poor move by the "Oracle of Omaha." A sequence of severe wildfires, hurricanes, and floods will cost reinsurers $100 billion in 2020.
In his letter to the Paris Agreement, Buffett emphasized his company's support for renewable energy. When the idea was made, Buffett was vehemently opposed to the preparation of a report on the hazards that climate change brings to the corporation. Buffett claimed that if you only consider yourself a stakeholder in a major insurance, climate warming should not be a problem.
Over the last six years, Buffett's attitude toward climate change reporting and risk has been consistent. He is opposed to a proposed shareholder resolution that would require climate change reports. According to Berkshire's annual proxy filing, the board of directors "unanimously endorses the vote against the proposal," with Buffett's 2015 email highlighted as one rationale.
7. Larry Ellison
Oracle, Ellison's software corporation, has a strong stance on sustainability. It proudly proclaims, "Oracle acknowledges that sustainable business is good for business," and it also highlights the company's sustainability goals. These objectives have not yet been submitted to SBTi.
Ellison, who served as CEO from 2014 to 2014, will continue to serve as chairman and chief technology officer. His interests include sailing and other activities that reflect his environmental ethic. Ellison inaugurated the SailGP Catamarans Race in 2018. It is currently valued at $200 million. Ellison inaugurated the SailGP catamarans event in 2018. Ellison's most ambitious project is to turn the Hawaiian island Lanai (which he purchased for $300 million in 2012) into a renewable energy and wellness utopia. In Lanai, he created the health company Sensei. It has opened Sensei Retreat, a $3,000-per-night spa, and Sensei Farms, solar-powered hydroponic farms. Through his entirely off-grid farms, Ellison intends to make the entire island more solar-powered.
Ellison's philanthropic foundation was closed in January of this year. He had directed the majority of his gifts toward healthcare and education, and his current focus is the Covid-19 pandemic.
8. Larry page and Sergey Brin
Google's co-founders are Sergey Brin (R) and Larry Page (L). Google was created with the credo "don't do evil" and has since grown to become one of the world's largest corporations. Google announced in 2009 that it had purchased "high quality carbon offsets" to offset some of its carbon emissions in 2008 and 2007. Google's parent business is now Alphabet. Alphabet claims that it has been using renewable energy since 2017. Alphabet's most recent objective is to run its campuses and data centers on carbon-free energy 24 hours a day, seven days a week by 2030.
Google's founders are outspoken about their commitment to sustainability, even when it causes controversy, as when they left the American Legislative Exchange Council (a free market lobbying group) in 2014 because of its links to climate change denial. However, Page and Brin were chastised for their $29 million private retreat in Italy. Many of their high-profile guests who were invited to discuss climate change flew in on private jets.
Alphabet's co-founders have comparable corporate goals but are not related in terms of breakthrough technology. Page invested in Planetary Resources, a now-defunct asteroid mining business, as well as the flying automobile startups Kitty Hawk and Opener. Brin is alleged to have been involved with the clandestine LTA Research startup for four years. Its objective is to develop a disaster-response airship powered by hydrogen and helium.
9. Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio, the Oscar-winning actor, is well-known for his environmental activism. In 1998, he established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. Its purpose is to "assist in the restoration of balance to endangered ecosystems, assuring the long-term well-being of all Earth's inhabitants." In July, he gave $4 million to the Amazon Fires relief effort. He has already given numerous gifts to climate change organizations. His group actively promotes ecological restoration all around the world.
10. Francoise Bettencourt Meyers
Francoise Bettencourt Meyers is the heiress to L'Oreal Cosmetics and a board member of the world's largest cosmetics firm. SBTi's dedication? Yes, l'Oreal pledged in April 2018 to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2030. This is in addition to lowering absolute emissions at its facilities by 100% by 2025.
The world's richest woman is also one of the most public-shy—perhaps to be anticipated after spending years embroiled in the Bettencourt Affair, a highly publicized scandal sparked by her lawsuit against a photographer who received nearly $1 billion in gifts from her mother over the years.
Betterncourt Meyers also serves as the head of her family's foundation. This foundation is not concerned with climate change or sustainability, but rather with the arts, life sciences, and inclusion.
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world's richest people, carbon footprint, fighting climate change
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