Jeff Bezos says he’s a climate guy — why is he kissing the ring?

Jeff Bezos mightiness conscionable beryllium the biggest clime philanthropist retired there, which is what makes his swift clasp of Donald Trump arsenic the adjacent US president peculiarly cringeworthy.

“Wishing @realDonaldTrump all occurrence successful starring and uniting the America we each love,” Bezos posted connected X, hours aft Trump declared victory.

The Amazon laminitis and seat launched his Bezos Earth Fund successful 2020, committing $10 cardinal to backing enactment connected clime change. The fund’s website describes it arsenic “the largest philanthropic committedness ever to combat clime alteration and support nature.”

President-elect Trump, meanwhile, says rising oversea levels — which marque storms and flooding much unsafe acknowledgment to clime alteration — simply mean “you’ll person much water beforehand property.” On the run trail, helium disparaged solutions similar renewable vigor — pushing misinformation similar the myth that offshore upwind farms are sidesplitting whales on US shorelines. He consistently downplays the risks posed by clime change, adjacent arsenic the US reels from disasters similar Hurricane Helene that were supercharged by greenhouse state emissions.

While the US dropped the shot connected clime enactment astatine the national level, local leaders and adjacent the backstage assemblage attempted to capable successful the gaps. During the past mates of years of Trump’s archetypal term, a question of large tech companies made commitments to trim greenhouse state emissions — ostensibly successful enactment with what’s needed to scope Paris clime statement goals.

One of the aboriginal companies to bash truthful was Amazon, which set a extremity successful 2019 of reaching nett zero greenhouse state emissions by 2040. Fast-forward to 2023, and the institution inactive produced 34 percent much c contamination than it did erstwhile it made its archetypal clime pledge — though its emissions person started to travel backmost down slightly, according to Amazon’s latest sustainability report.

Under different Trump presidency, locally led clime enactment and philanthropy go adjacent much important again. Upon stepping backmost into office, Trump is expected to present a landslide of caller policies that would dilatory the modulation to cleaner vigor needed to support clime disasters from increasing overmuch worse.

Notably, helium said he’d rescind unspent funds from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that acceptable speech $369 billion for vigor ratio initiatives and the domestic manufacturing of electrical vehicles and cleanable vigor technologies. The Inflation Reduction Act unsocial is projected to slash greenhouse state emissions by astir 40 percent from 2005 levels by the extremity of the decennary — bringing the US adjacent to reaching goals President Joe Biden acceptable upon recommitting the US to the Paris clime agreement.

Another Trump presidency, connected the different hand, would apt summation US greenhouse state emissions by 4 cardinal metric tons compared to Biden’s plans, according to a Carbon Brief analysis published earlier Harris became the Democratic candidate. Trump has besides said that he’d take the US retired of the Paris accord again.

All the bromance could truly conscionable beryllium a strategical play connected the portion of Bezos and different billionaires to support their bottommost lines. But that database represents a batch of wealth and powerfulness that could either assistance support clime goals live oregon autumn successful enactment down a president who told Musk successful August that “the biggest menace is atomic warming … To me, the biggest occupation is not clime change.”