Jeff Bezos Pledges $2 Billion In COP26 Summit

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has pledged $2 billion (€1.7 billion) towards "restoring nature and transforming food systems" during a speech at the UN's COP26 summit in Glasgow.

Photo Insert: The Bezos Earth Fund is working with leaders from Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, and Bolivia, to help create the largest transnational marine protected area on the planet, covering an area larger than California.

Bezos, whose net worth grew by $75 billion (€64.6 billion) last year, said his July trip to space had shown him that the natural world was "so finite and so fragile."

"I was told that seeing the Earth from space changes the lens through which you see the world. But I was not prepared for how much that would be true," he told delegates.

"Looking back at Earth from up there, the atmosphere seems so thin. The world is so finite and so fragile. Now in this critical year, and what we all know is the decisive decade, we must all stand together to protect our world".

Half the money pledged on Monday would go towards landscape restoration in Africa and the United States, the multi-billionaire's Bezos Earth Fund said in a statement.

The rest would be spent on reducing the carbon footprint of food production and cutting food waste, it said. The $2 billion will be handed out by 2030, the Bezos Earth Fund added.

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