世界首富亞馬遜執行長貝佐斯（Jeff Bezos）今年2月宣布，以個人名義設立100億美元地球基金，本月17日公布首批捐款對象為16個著重自然氣候解決方案的環保組織，總計會撥出近8億美元。其中五大知名環團分別是環境保護基金會（Environmental Defense Fund﹐EDF）、自然資源保護委員會（Natural Resources Defense Council）、自然保育協會（Nature Conservancy）、世界資源研究所（World Resources Institute）和世界自然基金會（World Wildlife Fund﹐WWF）分別會獲得1億美元的挹注。
EDF將打造一顆能監測全球甲烷污染源的衛星
EDF將使用這1億美元建立對自然氣候解決方案的信心。EDF聲明指出，以自然為基礎的氣候解決方案利用森林、農業土壤和海洋的力量捕捉和儲存碳，以經同儕審查的嚴謹科學為基礎，確保碳權的完整性。
貝佐斯地球基金的捐款將幫助EDF使MethaneSAT衛星完工。這顆衛星可以全球定位和測量甲烷污染源，預計於2022年發射。
MethaneSAT將會每周定期監測全球主要石油和天然氣產地，涵蓋總產量80％以上，提供前所未有的精準定位和排放速度資訊，最後透過資料分析確定排放的責任。
EDF預估，到2025年，MethaneSAT將使全球石油和天然氣的甲烷污染減少45％，效果等同關閉全球1/3的燃煤電廠20年，使整個產業有機會在2030年之前步上減排75％的軌道。
自然保育協會 保護橫跨美加、世界最大的溫帶雨林
自然資源保護委員會將利用1億美元捐款推動州政府層級的氣候解決方案和立法，著重減少石油和天然氣生產、保護和恢復儲碳的生態系統，像是森林和濕地，並促進永續和再生農業的農法。
自然保育協會將用這1億美元來保護美國和加拿大的「翡翠緣」（Emerald Edge）森林。透過和原民及部落社群合作，提高森林的碳儲存能力並減少碳排放。
翡翠緣森林從華盛頓州延伸到阿拉斯加東南部，是地球上最大的完整溫帶雨林。
自然保育協會華盛頓州分會主管史蒂文斯（Mike Stevens）表示，該森林對於碳儲存至關重要，是因應氣候變遷的自然方案，「我們的氣候目標，最高有1/3減排和碳封存可以透過自然來完成。」
世界資源研究所預計開發衛星監測系統 監視碳排放
推進自然解決方案也是世界資源研究所的一項優先任務，該研究所將在五年內獲得1億美元，使該研究所能夠與合作夥伴合作，以擴大其在全球的工作和影響。
世界資源研究所表示，將利用這筆錢來開發衛星監測系統，以在全球推動以自然為基礎的氣候解決方案。這套系統將監視碳排放，並監測對世界森林、草原、濕地、農地和其他關鍵區域的潛在不利變化。
此外，世界資源研究所也將推動2030年全美國45萬校車的電氣化，淨化空氣和減少碳排放。
WWF也表示會將這1億美元用在「最能透過自然的力量支持社群、穩定氣候的解決方案」，包括保護和恢復儲碳的紅樹林，並保護沿海社群免受極端天氣事件的破壞；開發海藻新市場，替代化石燃料產品；保護全世界最重要的森林和其他生態系統免於被破壞。
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the world’s wealthiest person, is giving nearly $800 million to 16 environmental groups in the first donations from his $10 billion Earth Fund. In February, Bezos announced the creation of his personal $10 billion Earth Fund, designed to support what Bezos has called “needle-moving solutions” to the climate crisis.
The complete list of grantees is: The Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, ClimateWorks Foundation, Dream Corps Green For All, Eden Reforestation Projects, Energy Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, The Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, NDN Collective, Rocky Mountain Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, The Solutions Project, Union of Concerned Scientists, World Resources Institute, and World Wildlife Fund.
The 16 recipients include five large, well-known environmental groups that will each receive a grant of $100 million from the Bezos Earth Fund – the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Nature Conservancy, the World Resources Institute, and the World Wildlife Fund.
Grantees Focus on Nature’s Own Solutions
The Environmental Defense Fund, EDF, will use its $100 million grant “to build confidence in nature-based climate solutions that harness the power of forests, agricultural soils and oceans to capture and store carbon by using peer-reviewed science to ensure the integrity of carbon credits. So the rainforests of the world are worth more alive than dead,” the group said in a statement.
The Bezos Earth Fund gift will allow EDF to complete MethaneSAT, a satellite that will locate and measure sources of methane pollution around the world, and launch it in 2022.
MethaneSAT will provide regular monitoring of regions accounting for more than 80 percent of global oil and gas production on a weekly basis, with enough detail to identify both location and emission rates with an unprecedented degree of precision.
Data analysis will then determine responsibility for those emissions.
EDF expects the MethaneSAT work to cut methane pollution from the global oil and gas industry 45 percent by 2025, “delivering the same 20-year benefit as closing a third of the world’s coal plants,” the group said. This will put the industry on the path of a 75 percent reduction before 2030. It’s the fastest, most cost-effective thing we can do to slow the rate of warming right now even as we continue to decarbonize the energy system.”
The Natural Resources Defense Council will use its $100 million grant from the Earth Fund to help NRDC “advance climate solutions and legislation at the state level, move the needle on policies and programs focused on reducing oil and gas production, protect and restore ecosystems that store carbon, like forests and wetlands, and accelerate sustainable and regenerative agriculture practices.”
The Nature Conservancy will use its $100 million Bezos Earth Fund grant to protect the Emerald Edge forest in the United States and Canada. In partnership with Indigenous and tribal communities whose culture and livelihoods are intertwined with the landscape, the Nature Conservancy will work to increase the forest’s ability to store carbon and mitigate emissions that damage the planet.
The Emerald Edge, which extends from Washington state to southeast Alaska, is the largest, intact temperate rainforest on Earth.
The Nature Conservancy’s Washington state director Mike Stevens said this region is critical for storing carbon – a natural solution to climate change. “Up to a third of the emissions reductions and sequestration that we need to do can be done through nature,” he said.
Advancing natural solutions is also a priority for the World Resources Institute, which will receive $100 million over five years, enabling the institute to work with partners to scale its work and impact globally.
WRI says the organization will use this grant to develop a satellite-based monitoring system to advance “natural climate solutions” around the world. The system will monitor carbon emissions and capture potentially harmful changes to the world’s forests, grasslands, wetlands, farms, and other critical areas.
The WRI grant will also be used to spur the electrification of U.S. school buses by 2030 – over 450,000 vehicles – bringing cleaner air and fewer carbon emissions to communities across the country.
The power of nature to heal the climate is also central to the plans the World Wildlife Fund, WWF, is making to utilize its $100 million Earth Fund grant. WWF will use the money to “accelerate the most promising solutions that harness the power of nature to provide for communities and stabilize our climate,” the group said in a statement.
This grant will help WWF protect and restore mangroves, which store carbon and protect coastal communities from the ravages of climate-accelerated weather events. It also will enable WWF to develop new markets for seaweed as an alternative to fossil fuel-based products and to protect forests and other ecosystems from destruction in some of the most important landscapes in the world.
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