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How Minecraft and other video games are teaching kids about climate change

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Monday, April 29, 2024

Earlier in April, more than 60 million people were presented with a mission: Track down and vanquish a golden, fire-breathing dragon terrorizing a vulnerable village.That is, a digital village in the metaverse of Minecraft, a videogame that allows its many users to explore and build their own worlds. In this new Minecraft minigame, “Heat Wave Survival,” players are facing up against the Heat Dragon, a villain developers created to represent the deadly threat of extreme heat as global temperatures rise.This is just one of the many ways that climate change is infiltrating game night. Around the world, developers and designers are intentionally weaving climate change characters like the Heat Dragon, as well as potential solutions, into board games and video games to help engage users in the fight to slow global warming.Today, we are exploring how the climate movement is growing within the gaming universe—and what that could mean for the real world.Climate Gamers: The main goal of Minecraft’s “Heat Wave Survival” is to slay the mighty heat dragon, but throughout the mission, players get tips on how to recognize the symptoms of heat-related illnesses and the best ways to respond such as hydrating or finding a cool space, reports Fast Company.The team, led by the nonprofit Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, is also developing a second game in its series in which players are in charge of building their own city supplied by renewable energy, with the option to install heat-resilient infrastructure such as shade structures. The games are primarily aimed at young students.But this isn’t the first initiative of its kind. In 2019, the United Nations launched its Playing for the Planet Alliance, with the goal of helping the video game industry shrink its environmental footprint and engage its players in climate action.Each year, the Alliance—which has dozens of members such as Sony and Google—hosts a “Green Game Jam,” where companies are encouraged to integrate more eco-friendly themes into their games. In 2023, developers added nature conservation elements into 41 games, Bloomberg reports. For example, the company Rovio Entertainment added a temporary new challenge to the popular game Angry Birds, in which users were tasked with saving virtual endangered animals in the Amazon.However, the video game industry itself has its own emissions issues to reckon with. Along with the energy required to play a game, engineers use large amounts of energy to power computers during development, and manufacturing of game accessories and devices uses vast quantities of plastic and batteries, which can contribute to the growing problem of electronic waste after they are disposed of, Claire Asher writes for Mongabay.In December, a CNET report found that “only a portion of gaming companies release climate impact data,” but that a growing number of developers are making efforts to reduce emissions through the use of renewable energy in their supply chains.Clean Energy Simulations: Outside the virtual world, a new energy-oriented version of the classic board game “Settlers of Catan” is being released this summer. The original iteration was created in 1995 and tasked players with creating their own nation from scratch on an undeveloped island. The new game, dubbed “Catan: New Energies,” will introduce more of the modern-day struggles that come along with rapid industrial growth, and the emissions associated with them.In the game, players must choose between investing in expensive clean energy options or low-cost but high-polluting fossil fuels (sound familiar?). Though “Catan: New Energies” does not outright mention the term climate change, if pollutant levels get too high, “the game ends in catastrophe” and the player with the most renewable energy tokens wins, according to Catan’s website.Benjamin Teuber, co-developer of the new game, told NPR that during the development phase, the testing team would “always manage to over pollute.”However, games offer unlimited chances to explore how to wrangle in runaway emissions: “We had heavy discussions afterwards,” Teuber said. “We all felt kind of bad, we learned a thing or two, and the next game we played differently.”But what about the real world, where research shows that there won’t be unlimited opportunities to slow emissions before climate change irrevocably alters ecosystems and cities? Board games and simulations can “inspire players to learn about the climate crisis and motivate them to act,” Sam Illingworth, a game developer and science communications expert at Edinburgh Napier University in the United Kingdom, wrote in the Conversation.“As we face the urgent challenges ahead, I believe that such games can play a crucial role in fostering understanding, dialogue and action.”This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.

Forget slaying dragons, the newest gaming trend is saving the virtual world (and maybe ours too).

Earlier in April, more than 60 million people were presented with a mission: Track down and vanquish a golden, fire-breathing dragon terrorizing a vulnerable village.

That is, a digital village in the metaverse of Minecraft, a videogame that allows its many users to explore and build their own worlds. In this new Minecraft minigame, “Heat Wave Survival,” players are facing up against the Heat Dragon, a villain developers created to represent the deadly threat of extreme heat as global temperatures rise.

This is just one of the many ways that climate change is infiltrating game night. Around the world, developers and designers are intentionally weaving climate change characters like the Heat Dragon, as well as potential solutions, into board games and video games to help engage users in the fight to slow global warming.

Today, we are exploring how the climate movement is growing within the gaming universe—and what that could mean for the real world.

Climate Gamers: The main goal of Minecraft’s “Heat Wave Survival” is to slay the mighty heat dragon, but throughout the mission, players get tips on how to recognize the symptoms of heat-related illnesses and the best ways to respond such as hydrating or finding a cool space, reports Fast Company.

The team, led by the nonprofit Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, is also developing a second game in its series in which players are in charge of building their own city supplied by renewable energy, with the option to install heat-resilient infrastructure such as shade structures. The games are primarily aimed at young students.

But this isn’t the first initiative of its kind. In 2019, the United Nations launched its Playing for the Planet Alliance, with the goal of helping the video game industry shrink its environmental footprint and engage its players in climate action.

Each year, the Alliance—which has dozens of members such as Sony and Google—hosts a “Green Game Jam,” where companies are encouraged to integrate more eco-friendly themes into their games. In 2023, developers added nature conservation elements into 41 games, Bloomberg reports. For example, the company Rovio Entertainment added a temporary new challenge to the popular game Angry Birds, in which users were tasked with saving virtual endangered animals in the Amazon.

However, the video game industry itself has its own emissions issues to reckon with. Along with the energy required to play a game, engineers use large amounts of energy to power computers during development, and manufacturing of game accessories and devices uses vast quantities of plastic and batteries, which can contribute to the growing problem of electronic waste after they are disposed of, Claire Asher writes for Mongabay.

In December, a CNET report found that “only a portion of gaming companies release climate impact data,” but that a growing number of developers are making efforts to reduce emissions through the use of renewable energy in their supply chains.

Clean Energy Simulations: Outside the virtual world, a new energy-oriented version of the classic board game “Settlers of Catan” is being released this summer. The original iteration was created in 1995 and tasked players with creating their own nation from scratch on an undeveloped island. The new game, dubbed “Catan: New Energies,” will introduce more of the modern-day struggles that come along with rapid industrial growth, and the emissions associated with them.

In the game, players must choose between investing in expensive clean energy options or low-cost but high-polluting fossil fuels (sound familiar?). Though “Catan: New Energies” does not outright mention the term climate change, if pollutant levels get too high, “the game ends in catastrophe” and the player with the most renewable energy tokens wins, according to Catan’s website.

Benjamin Teuber, co-developer of the new game, told NPR that during the development phase, the testing team would “always manage to over pollute.”

However, games offer unlimited chances to explore how to wrangle in runaway emissions: “We had heavy discussions afterwards,” Teuber said. “We all felt kind of bad, we learned a thing or two, and the next game we played differently.”

But what about the real world, where research shows that there won’t be unlimited opportunities to slow emissions before climate change irrevocably alters ecosystems and cities? Board games and simulations can “inspire players to learn about the climate crisis and motivate them to act,” Sam Illingworth, a game developer and science communications expert at Edinburgh Napier University in the United Kingdom, wrote in the Conversation.

“As we face the urgent challenges ahead, I believe that such games can play a crucial role in fostering understanding, dialogue and action.”

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.

Read the full story here.

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Eleven from MIT awarded 2024 Fulbright fellowships

The Fulbright US Student Program funds research, study, and teaching opportunities abroad.

Eleven MIT undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni have won Fulbright grants to embark on projects overseas in the 2024-25 grant cycle. Two other students were offered awards but declined them to pursue other opportunities.Funded by the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers year-long opportunities for American citizen students and recent alumni to conduct independent research, pursue graduate studies, or teach English in over 140 countries.MIT has been a Fulbright Top-Producing Institution for five years in a row. MIT students and alumni interested in applying to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program should contact Julia Mongo, MIT Fulbright program advisor, in the Office of Distinguished Fellowships in Career Advising and Professional Development.April Cheng is a junior studying physics with a minor in mathematics and is fast-tracked to graduate this spring. They will take their Fulbright research grant to the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany, where they will study different statistical techniques to infer the expansion rate of the universe from gravitational waves. They first developed an interest in gravitational waves and black holes at the MIT LIGO and Caltech LIGO labs, but their research spans a wide range of topics in astrophysics, including cosmology and fast radio bursts. Cheng is passionate about physics education and is heavily involved in developing educational materials for high school Science Olympiads. At MIT, they are a member of the Physics Values Committee, the physics mentorship program, and the MIT Lion Dance team. After Fulbright, Cheng will pursue a PhD in astrophysics at Princeton University, where they have received the President’s Fellowship.Grace McMillan is a senior majoring in literature and mechanical engineering with a concentration in Russian language. As a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award recipient, she will teach at a university in Kazakhstan. McMillan’s interest in Central Asia was sparked by a Russian language immersion program she participated in during her sophomore summer in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, funded by MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI). She is excited to help her students learn English to foster integration into the global academic community. During her time at MIT, McMillan has conducted research with faculty in nuclear science; earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences; and the Digital Humanities Lab. Outside of academics, she has been an active member of her sorority, Sigma Kappa, and has served on the MIT Health Consumers’ Advisory Council for two years. After Fulbright, McMillan hopes to attend law school, focusing on education reform.Ryan McTigue will graduate this spring with a BS in physics and mathematics and a concentration in Spanish. With a Fulbright award to Spain, he will do research at the University of Valencia’s Institute of Molecular Science focusing on the physics of two-dimensional multiferroic nanodevices. He is looking forward to improving his Spanish and getting the opportunity to live abroad. At MIT, McTigue became interested in condensed matter physics research with the Checkelsky group, where he focused on engineering materials with flat bands that exhibited correlated electron effects. Outside of research, McTigue has been a mentor in the physics department’s mentoring program and a member of the heavyweight men’s crew team. After his Fulbright grant, McTigue will begin a PhD in physics at Princeton University.Keith Murray ’22 graduated from MIT with a BS in computation and cognition and linguistics and philosophy. He will receive his MEng degree in computation and cognition this spring. As a Fulbright Hungary research grantee at the HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Murray will design generative AI models inspired by the primary visual cortex with the goal of making AI models more interpretable. At MIT, Murray’s research experiences spanned from training mice to perform navigation tasks in virtual reality to theorizing about how neurons might compute modular arithmetic. He was also a member of the men’s heavyweight crew team and the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. After Fulbright, Murray will pursue a PhD in neuroscience at Princeton University.Maaya Prasad ’22 completed her undergraduate education at MIT with degrees in both electrical engineering and creative writing and will graduate this month with an MS in mechanical and ocean engineering. Her thesis research focuses on microplastic detection using optical sensing. Prasad’s Fulbright fellowship will take her to Mauritius, an East African island country located in the Indian Ocean. Here, she will continue her master’s research at the University of Mauritius and will work with local researchers to implement a microplastic survey system. While at MIT, Prasad joined the varsity sailing team with no prior experience. Her time spent on the water led her to pursue marine research at MIT Sea Grant, and she eventually earned an honorable mention to the 2023 All-American Sailing Team. After Fulbright, Prasad hopes to pursue a PhD in applied ocean engineering.Anusha Puri is a senior majoring in biological engineering. Her Fulbright award will take her to Lausanne, Switzerland, where she will conduct cancer immunology research at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research. At MIT, Puri’s work in the Weinberg Lab focused on understanding mechanisms that drive resistance of breast cancer to immunotherapy. On campus, she founded and serves as president of MIT’s premiere stand-up comedy group, Stand-Up CoMITy, leads MIT’s Bhangra dance team, and is the editor-in-chief of the MIT Undergraduate Research Journal. She looks forward to engaging with teaching outreach and practicing her French in Switzerland. After her Fulbright grant, she plans to pursue a PhD in biomedical science.Olivia Rosenstein will graduate this spring with a BS in physics and a minor in French. Her Fulbright will take her to ENS Paris-Saclay in Palaiseau, France, where she’ll deepen her education in atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics. At MIT, Rosenstein has worked in Professor Mark Vogelsberger’s group researching models of galaxy formation and the early universe, and in Professor Richard Fletcher’s group on an erbium-lithium experiment to investigate quantum many-body dynamics in a degenerate mixture. In France, she will expand on the skills she developed in Fletcher’s lab by contributing to a project using optical tweezer arrays to study dipolar interactions. After Fulbright, Rosenstein plans to return to the United States to pursue a PhD in experimental AMO at Caltech.Jennifer Schug will receive this spring an MEng degree in the Climate, Environment, and Sustainability track within the MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. During her Fulbright year in Italy, she will conduct research on carbon storage in the Venice lagoon at the University of Padua. Schug is excited to build upon her research with the Terrer Lab at MIT, where she is currently investigating the effectiveness of forestation as a carbon sequestration strategy. She also looks forward to improving her Italian language skills and learning about Italian history and culture. Before beginning Fulbright this fall, Schug will study ecological preservation in Sicily this summer through an MIT-Italy collaboration with the University of Catania. After Fulbright, she hopes to continue researching nature-based solutions as climate change mitigation strategies.Vaibhavi Shah ’21 earned a BS in biological engineering and in science, technology, and society at MIT, where she was named a Goldwater Scholar. She is now a medical student at Stanford University. As a Fulbright-Fogarty Fellow in Public Health, Shah will use both her computational and humanities backgrounds to investigate sociocultural factors underlying traumatic surgical injuries in Nepal. While at MIT, she was on the executive board of GlobeMed and the Society of Women Engineers, and she hopes to use those experiences to amplify diverse voices in medicine while on her journey to becoming a neurosurgeon-scientist. After Fulbright, Shah will complete her final year of medical school.Charvi Sharma is a senior studying computer science and molecular biology with a minor in theater arts. As a Fulbright English teaching assistant in Spain, she is excited to engage in cross-cultural exchange while furthering her skills as a teacher and as a leader. In addition to teaching, Sharma looks forward to immersing herself in the country’s vibrant traditions, improving her Spanish proficiency, and delving into the local arts and dance scene. At MIT, through Global Teaching Labs Spain and her roles as a dynaMIT mentor, an associate advisor, and a captain and president of her dance teams Mirchi and Nritya, Sharma has served as a teacher of both STEM and dance. Her passion for making a difference in her community is also evident through her work with Boston Medical Center’s Autism Program through the PKG Public Service Center and as an undergraduate cancer researcher in the Yaffe Lab. After Fulbright, Sharma plans to pursue an MD and, ultimately, a career as a clinician-scientist.Isabella Witham is a senior majoring in biological engineering. As a recipient of the Fulbright U.S.-Korea Presidential STEM Initiative Award, she will conduct research at Seoul National University’s Biomimetic Materials and Stem Cell Engineering Lab. Her work will involve creating biomimetic scaffolds for pancreatic cell transplantation to treat type I diabetes. While in South Korea, Witham aims to improve her language skills and explore cultural sites and cities. At MIT, she worked in the Belcher Lab on nanoparticle formulations, was a tutor for MIT’s Women’s Technology Program, and volunteered as a Medlink. After her Fulbright fellowship, she plans to pursue a PhD in biological engineering.

Climate

Culture

Education

Bird populations in the Amazon are declining without clear cause

Bird populations in the Amazon's Yasuní Biosphere Reserve have mysteriously dropped by half over 23 years, with climate change being a potential culprit.Bernardo Araujo reports for Mongabay.In short:The number of birds in Ecuador's Yasuní Biosphere Reserve has halved, according to a recent study.Researchers suspect climate change as the primary cause, despite the area being largely undisturbed by human activity.Similar declines have been observed in other tropical regions, indicating a broader environmental issue.Key quote: “There’s something called the dawn chorus, which is typical in tropical forests where lots of birds sing just before dawn. And over the last 10 years, that has just been going quieter and quieter with very few birds singing in the morning.”— John Blake, University of Florida professorWhy this matters: This decline in bird populations, even in pristine habitats, is indicative of the far-reaching impacts of climate change, raising alarms about the future of biodiversity in tropical ecosystems. For more, read our series, Winged Warnings: What birds are telling us about our planet's health.

Climate

Forests

Health

Politicians avoid discussing climate change during Indian elections

As India’s general elections approach, voters are facing climate-related hardships that politicians largely ignore.Sibi Arasu reports for the Associated Press.In short:Extreme heat and drought in Maharashtra state have left farmers struggling, with no substantial political focus on environmental issues.Increased cyclones along India’s eastern coasts have caused significant damage and deaths, with locals frustrated by unfulfilled political promises.Floods in Assam state are worsening, leaving residents on river islands vulnerable and dissatisfied with political inaction.Key quote: “Politicians are only talking about religion and caste. No one is talking about the environment or farmers' issues.” — Vaibhav Maske, farmer in MaharashtraWhy this matters: Ignoring climate change in political discourse undermines efforts to address its severe impacts on health, livelihoods, and regional stability. Effective policies are needed to protect communities from increasingly extreme weather events. Read more: Sabah Usmani on making cities healthy and just.

Climate

Health

Our Fixation on Forests as a Climate Solution Is Causing Problems

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. What is the value of a tree? It can provide a cool place to rest in the shade, a snack in the form of fruit, lumber to build a home, and cleaner air. But trees are increasingly being prized for one thing: their ability to capture carbon and counteract climate change. Billions of dollars are flowing into projects to plant and protect trees so that governments and businesses can claim they’ve canceled out their emissions. Saving forests and planting trees are often portrayed as a “triple win” for the environment, economy, and people. According to a major report being presented on Friday at the United Nations Forum on Forests, however, that goal is proving more complicated than expected. The conversation about how to manage forests “has been overtaken by the climate discussion,” said Daniela Kleinschmit, an author of the report and the vice president of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations, the network behind the research. The result? Indigenous peoples are getting pushed out of their lands because of carbon offset projects. Native grasslands are getting turned into forests, even though grasslands themselves are huge, overlooked reservoirs of carbon. And offset projects in forests, more often than not, fail to achieve all of the emissions benefits their backers had promised. “It seems that the ongoing climate crisis has, to some extent, legitimized excessive forest management techniques, such as fertilization.” The new report, the first comprehensive assessment of how the world is governing its forests in 14 years, offers some good news—global deforestation rates have slowed down slightly, from 32 million acres a year in 2010 to 25 million in 2020. But what the report calls the “climatization” of forests has led to the rise of carbon sequestration markets that prioritize short-term profits over long-term sustainability, it found. Experts say that it’s possible to pursue the global goal of sequestering carbon in forests while also keeping locals happy—it would just take a more thoughtful approach that considers the tradeoffs and involves the people most affected. Daniel Miller, a professor of environmental policy at the University of Notre Dame, said that a narrow focus on forests’ environmental benefits misses “a huge part of the story.” Miller’s research has shown that forests can help fight poverty, since the edible goods found in them are often available during times of the year when people might go hungry. Having forests nearby can make land more productive, increasing crop yields by more than 50 percent in some cases. That’s because forests can enrich the soil, increase rainfall, and help with pollination. More than 3 billion people live within 1 kilometer (a little over half a mile) of forests and depend on them for jobs, like harvesting timber, and for food like nuts and mushrooms. Forests can also help people adapt to a warming world. They regulate floods and landslides and sustain livelihoods that are jeopardized by climate change, said Ida Djenontin, a professor of geography at Penn State. But what looks like a promising carbon sequestration effort can have unexpected consequences that undermine those benefits. For example, Finland’s ministry of agriculture is trying to fertilize its forests to make them grow faster, in the hope that they will suck up carbon quickly and help the country meet its goal of going carbon-neutral by 2035. But according to the new report, the government didn’t account for the energy-intensive process of producing and transporting fertilizer, a large source of carbon emissions. The report also points out that fertilizing forests can end up hurting reindeer herding, since it stifles the growth of lichen that reindeer eat; one study found that it could also reduce berry production in forests by 70 percent. “It seems that the ongoing climate crisis has, to some extent, legitimized excessive forest management techniques, such as fertilization,” the report concludes. The market for voluntary carbon offsets is predicted to grow from around $2 billion in 2021 to $250 billion by 2030. Many forest offset projects don’t work as intended. An investigation last year found that only eight out of 29 rainforest offset projects approved by Verra, the world’s biggest certifier, had meaningfully reduced deforestation. The rest of the projects “had no climate benefit,” according to The Guardian, partially because the threat of those forests getting cut down had been vastly overstated. The narrative that forests can save the world from climate change is a tempting one for businesses and politicians—they can seemingly take care of their climate pledges if they’re willing to fork over the money, without having to do the hard work of reducing emissions. It also allows people to skip the hard conversations about cutting down on consumption, Kleinschmit said. The market for voluntary carbon offsets—the ones companies choose to buy—is predicted to grow from around $2 billion in 2021 to $250 billion by 2030. Another problem is that “carbon cowboys”—a term for those seeking to profit off carbon offset schemes—can end up evicting Indigenous peoples from their homes. In 2015, Cambodian officials set aside more than 1,900 square miles of rainforest in the country’s Cardamom Mountains for a carbon offset project without consulting the Chong people that had lived there for centuries. Villagers were forced from their lands, and some were even arrested for collecting resin from trees, since carbon offset areas were monitored to stop locals from using the forest’s resources. In the United Arab Emirates, the company Blue Carbon has negotiated deals for millions of acres so it can launch offset projects aimed at protecting forests across Liberia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Much of that land has been held by Indigenous peoples. Since 1990, an estimated quarter-million people around the world have been pushed out of their homes in the name of conservation. Global climate goals, of course, don’t have to come into conflict with local needs. Experts say it’s possible to balance the two effectively. Prakash Kashwan, an environmental studies professor at Brandeis University, said that locals can use resources from trees, at least on a smaller scale, without hurting a forest’s ability to sequester carbon, according to his research. Studies have demonstrated that involving Indigenous peoples and local residents in the process of decision-making is key to better social and environmental outcomes—including carbon sequestration. “Allowing communities a say in how forests are managed is absolutely vital to more effective, lasting, and just forest governance, and for tackling these big global challenges that we face,” Miller said.

Climate

Forests

Business

The Bezos Earth fund has pumped billions into climate and nature projects. So why are experts uneasy?

Jeff Bezos’s $10bn climate and biodiversity fund has garnered glittering prizes, but concerns have been voiced over the influence it can buy – and its interest in carbon offsetsLate last month, the coronation of Jeff Bezos and his partner Lauren Sánchez as environmental royalty was complete. At Conservation International’s glitzy annual gala in New York, with Harrison Ford, Jacinda Ardern and Shailene Woodley looking on, the couple were given the global visionary award for the financial contribution of the Bezos Earth Fund to the natural world.“Jeff and Lauren are making history, not just with the sum of their investment in nature but also the speed of it,” said the Conservation International CEO, Dr M Sanjayan, whose organisation received a $20m grant from Bezos in 2021 for its work in the tropical Andes. Continue reading...

Late last month, the coronation of Jeff Bezos and his partner Lauren Sánchez as environmental royalty was complete. At Conservation International’s glitzy annual gala in New York, with Harrison Ford, Jacinda Ardern and Shailene Woodley looking on, the couple were given the global visionary award for the financial contribution of the Bezos Earth Fund to the natural world.“Jeff and Lauren are making history, not just with the sum of their investment in nature but also the speed of it,” said the Conservation International CEO, Dr M Sanjayan, whose organisation received a $20m grant from Bezos in 2021 for its work in the tropical Andes.Launched with a skeleton team in February 2020, the Bezos Earth Fund aims to give away $10bn (£7.9bn) of the Amazon founder’s $200bn personal fortune to combat the climate crisis and biodiversity loss by the end of the decade. So far, it has issued more than 230 grants worth $2bn, funding initiatives from AI environmental solutions to clean energy for disadvantaged communities.In the process, the Bezos Earth Fund has become one of the most influential voices in the climate and biodiversity sector, with its fellows, advisers and directors a high-profile presence at international negotiations. Its ranks include the former UK environment minister Zac Goldsmith, the leading African environmentalist Wanjira Mathai, and the former Barack Obama adviser Paul Bodnar. Multimillion-dollar grants from the fund support dozens of leading NGOs and initiatives.But privately in the climate and biodiversity sector, the mood around the Bezos Earth Fund has turned to one of growing unease. Researchers, climate policy advisers and NGO staff voiced concerns about the level of influence the organisation holds over critical environmental institutions for halting climate change and biodiversity loss, many of which now count Bezos Earth Fund among their biggest funders. Some did not want to be named due to concerns about the consequences for their own funding.The projects of the Bezos fund do not address the key issues of the climate crisis – they are nice but unfortunately cosmeticDr Stephan Singer, global energy policy adviser“We have seen millions of dollars paid to conservation and climate organisations. So many have taken money from the Bezos Earth Fund and I find it really worrying. There is obviously a risk of a conflict of interest,” says Holger Hoffmann-Riem from the Swiss NGO Go for Impact. “The credibility of the system relies on independence.”One climate policy expert, speaking on the condition of anonymity, says: “In the few years since it started distributing enormous amounts of money for climate change and conservation, Bezos Earth Fund has established influence over many major initiatives and their board members.“At this point, Bezos Earth Fund’s enormous presence in the climate and conservation space starts to look less philanthropical, and more like an attempt to take over the corporate governance system for its own interests and agenda.”Dr Stephan Singer, a senior global energy policy adviser with Climate Action Network International, says: “Philanthropic organisations like the Bezos Earth Fund are fundamentally important for civil society across the globe to fund interventions on key environmental and climate issues. But there are large problems on the political implications.“The projects of the Bezos fund do not address the key issues of the fundamental climate crisis we are facing – they are nice but unfortunately cosmetic.”A spokesperson for the Bezos Earth Fund said there was no conflict of interest and that its grants further the public interest exclusively. They said it took the accusations seriously as the comments seek to undermine the reputation of the Bezos Earth Fund and its staff.The Bezos Earth Fund aims to give away $10bn in grants. Photograph: Timon Schneider/AlamyMany in the conservation and climate world say their concerns crystallised this year, when a bitter internal row erupted at the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), one of the world’s most important climate certification organisations. The SBTi, which received an $18m grant from Bezos in 2021, is the organisation responsible for assessing whether some of the world’s leading companies are decarbonising in line with the Paris agreement.In April, the SBTi board unexpectedly announced plans to allow companies to meet their climate targets with carbon offsets from the unregulated voluntary carbon market for indirect emissions. The move provoked internal fury. Staff and technical advisers said they were not consulted about the announcement and warned it could open the door to greenwashing.They expressed fears that the science-based process was being sidelined in favour of more company-friendly policies with weaker standards, with large polluters allowed to buy offsets instead of cutting emissions. Dozens of SBTi staff called for the resignation of the CEO, Luiz Fernando do Amaral, and board members, including the Bezos fellow Iván Duque, in an internal letter.Since the announcement, Amaral expressed regret for the confusion around the comments and said no rules had yet been changed. But the turmoil has placed lobbying efforts from the Bezos Earth Fund and other pro-carbon market organisations under increased scrutiny.A spokesperson for the SBTi said the organisation regretted the announcement had been “open to misinterpretation” and that any changes would follow a standard consultation process.Bezos is worth more than $200bn. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty ImagesA month before the SBTi announcement, the Bezos Earth Fund had organised a two-day meeting in London, and on the agenda was the role of offsets in corporate claims. Leading figures from the offsetting industry were invited, many of whom have pushed for the SBTi to allow offsets to boost demand in the struggling sector. One projection estimates that if the SBTi change is allowed to go through, it would be worth at least $19bn to the voluntary carbon market. A number of sources interviewed by the Guardian raised concerns that the meeting had influenced the board’s decision.“It is hard not to see a link between the London meeting and the decision of the SBTi board meeting a few weeks later,” says Juliette de Grandpré, an SBTi technical advisory group member and climate policy expert with the NewClimate Institute.“It is fairly easy to reconstruct that the Bezos foundation funds many pro-carbon markets initiatives in the US.”Andrew Steer, the president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund. Photograph: Ciaran McCrickard/World Economic ForumThe Bezos Earth Fund strongly disputes the claims, saying that it was not involved in the announcement by the SBTi board and the London workshop had nothing to do with the SBTi offsetting statement. It added that support for carbon markets from SBTi board members predates the statement.Dr Andrew Steer, the president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund, says the environmental standard-setting institutions it funded had impressive leadership and made up their own minds: “They are strong and committed to transparency, high-integrity standards and analytical rigour. Any suggestion that they don’t make their own decisions is clearly wide of the mark.”Bezos has given at least $45m (£36m) to carbon markets initiatives so far, according to the fund’s website, including an effort from the former US climate envoy John Kerry to pay developing countries to decommission coal funded by carbon credits.With many leading companies struggling to make good on ambitious net zero targets, supporters of carbon markets argue that allowing firms to buy offsets in the short term could help funnel billions of dollars to initiatives to protect rainforest, renewable energy and other decarbonisation schemes while benefiting biodiversity and local communities.Despite their claimed potential, there is widespread scientific evidence that offsetting schemes often do little to mitigate global heating and have increasingly become the focus of greenwashing crackdowns by regulators in the EU and the UK. A confidential draft of preliminary SBTi analysis seen by the Guardianfound that offsets are largely ineffective in their current form. The SBTi said that no analysis had yet been completed, including interim findings.There is a real risk that excessively pro-market funding leads to drowning out more critical voicesSam Van den plas, Carbon Market WatchMany climate policy experts say that companies should be focused on the deep emission cuts needed to meet the Paris agreement, worrying that offsets are a distraction.“In only a couple of years since it launched, the Bezos Earth Fund has become one of the most influential funders in the carbon market space, and has played a significant role in providing pro-market organisations with resources to promote the role of carbon markets. There is a real risk that excessively pro-market funding leads to drowning out more critical voices which provide the necessary counterbalance to the debate,” says Sam Van den plas, a policy director at the NGO Carbon Market Watch.A spokesperson for the Bezos Earth Fund says the organisation acknowledged quality issues in the carbon market and its grants were aimed at improving standards that provide clear benefits to Indigenous peoples and communities. Bezos Earth Fund disputes that its funding is unbalanced. SBTi has been known for its fierce independence, continually updating its assessments of corporate claims: easyJet, Microsoft and Walmart are among the dozens of companies that have had their net zero commitments delisted by the SBTi in recent months for not providing longer-term targets.Extinction Rebellion protesters march through Berlin in April last year. Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty ImagesKaya Axelsson, a research fellow at Oxford Net Zero, who is among 32 academics who signed a letter in Nature arguing against the SBTi announcement, says that the organisation’s independence is vital for highlighting where real environmental action is taking place.“SBTi fills a critical role advising corporate climate action,” she says. “Without it, or something like it, companies can set targets that look good but get us nowhere near our temperature goals for a safe and liveable climate. Ultimately this should be a role for governments because voluntary initiatives like this are vulnerable to special interest capture and companies can choose to reject them if they find targets difficult to meet.”A spokesperson for the SBTi says the organisation had a conflicts of interest policy displayed on its website and has multiple and diverse stakeholders with a range of views.Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features

Climate

Nature

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