Jeff Bezos is giving $25 million to protect the Pacific—but his climate fund still has about $7 billion left to spend in four years

(Credit: Getty Images—Lionel Hahn)

Back in 2020, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledged $10 billion to fight climate change through 2030. Nearly seven years later, the Bezos Earth Fund has granted about $2.4 billion, leaving just about four years to spend down more than $7 billion.

The fund’s latest move is doling out more than $25 million in grants announced Sept. 17 to protect more than 625,000 square miles of ocean (an area larger than Alaska) across the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, and Vanuatu. The grants are the second round of a $100 million Pacific pledge the fund made in 2023. The first round of $37.5 million went out in 2025, and the latest round brings the total awarded thus far to $63.3 million. The “Unlocking Blue Pacific Prosperity” pledge aims to sustainably manage the region’s waters and protect at least 30% of it by 2030, according to the Bezos Earth Fund.