Bezos Earth Fund supports EDF science and solutions

Confronting climate change has never been more urgent. And right now a window of opportunity is opening for action in the U.S. and around the world — even from space.

A generous grant of $100 million from the Bezos Earth Fund comes at a critical moment. EDF is heartened and inspired by this opportunity to drive lasting solutions.

Providing momentum for dramatic action

The pace of climate change is faster than scientists predicted. With its superstorms, floods, fires and droughts, we know it unfairly impacts the people least able to bear them.

The Bezos Earth Fund’s support for groups across the climate community, including environmental justice leaders, provides vital momentum at a time when public awareness must be turned into dramatic action.

The fastest way to slow global warming

Two years ago EDF created an affiliate to design and build MethaneSAT, a satellite that will locate and measure sources of methane pollution around the world. This gift will allow us to complete the satellite (pictured above in an artist's rendering) and launch it in 2022.

Bezos Earth Fund is also supporting the data platform and advocacy agenda that will make all MethaneSAT data transparent and publicly accessible to ensure accountability and drive deep reductions of this potent climate pollutant.

EDF expects our MethaneSAT work to cut methane pollution from the global oil and gas industry 45% by 2025 — delivering the same 20-year benefit as closing a third of the world’s coal plants.

This will put the industry on the path of a 75% 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.

Using nature to protect the climate

The grant will also be used 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 critical role philanthropy plays

Philanthropy is essential to supporting the work needed to avoid an overheated planet — and to doing so in a fair and equitable way. Yet currently, less than 2% of global philanthropy goes to addressing climate change.

Confronting the climate crisis before it is too late demands significant investment from philanthropists, the private sector as well as governments alike.

There are partners on the ground to help make it happen. The obstacle isn’t developing solutions, it is securing the funding needed to scale them and quickly. Our hope is that this gift encourages more people everywhere to support climate solutions.

Thank you for your support.