Jeff Bezos just put $25 million into the Pacific Ocean. Is the Bezos Earth Fund enough to save the Pacific Ocean before the $10 billion deadline?

The Bezos Earth Fund is putting another $25 million into Pacific Ocean conservation, backing projects across five island nations and more than 625,000 square miles of ocean. The new grants bring the fund’s Pacific commitment to $63.3 million so far. But the latest spending also highlights a much bigger deadline, Bezos has pledged $10 billion for climate work by 2030, and billions remain to be awarded, as per a report by Quartz and Fortune.

A major push to protect the Pacific Ocean

The Bezos Earth Fund announced the latest grants on Sept. 17 as part of its $100 million “Unlocking Blue Pacific Prosperity” initiative.

The money will support conservation work in the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu. The fund wants at least 30% of the region’s waters protected by 2030.


Lauren Sánchez Bezos, the fund’s vice chair, is leading the grants. She described the importance of the ocean in a statement.

“Out there, the ocean isn’t just a beautiful view,” Sánchez Bezos said. “It’s the road, the pantry, the backyard.”

The new funding will help Papua New Guinea develop its first large offshore marine protected area. It will also support expanded protected areas in Tonga and conservation work at the Cook Islands Marae Moana ocean park.

Kiribati and Vanuatu will receive support for habitat protection planning. A separate grant to conservation group Rare will help Pacific governments prepare proposals for protecting areas of the high seas under the UN’s High Seas Treaty, which took effect in January.

Marine protected areas can limit activities such as fishing, mining and other extraction. The strictest fully protected areas ban those activities altogether, according to The MPA Guide.

The fund said the latest grants build on work already underway across the region. French Polynesia has established what the Bezos Earth Fund calls the world’s largest network of fully protected marine areas, covering nearly 625,000 square miles.

Niue has also placed 40% of its national waters under protection. With the latest grants included, 17 of the Pacific region’s 22 countries are now working to protect and sustainably manage their waters, according to the fund.

The bigger Bezos Earth Fund spending challenge

The Pacific announcement comes as the Bezos Earth Fund faces a much larger task. In 2020, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledged $10 billion to fight climate change through 2030. The fund has now granted about $2.4 billion, leaving more than $7 billion to distribute over roughly four years.

Fortune reported that the fund would need to average about $1.8 billion a year to award the remaining money by the 2030 deadline.

Grantmaking has increased again after slowing in 2025. According to Fortune, fund officials told Bloomberg in May that annual grantmaking had climbed back to at least $400 million, compared with $183 million in 2025.

The fund has continued announcing projects across several areas. Since April, it has committed $34 million toward more sustainable fabrics, $26 million for wildfire detection and prevention, $100 million to turn vacant urban land into parks in eight U.S. cities, and another $100 million toward protecting threatened species through a partnership with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Re.

The Pacific grants are another part of that wider effort. The timing also comes as climate pressures increase across the region. The World Meteorological Organization said in a July report that the South-West Pacific is becoming hotter and more acidic. The changes are affecting marine ecosystems and local economies.

The report also said 2025 was the region’s second-warmest year on record, with marine heatwaves disrupting ecosystems and fisheries.

“Across Asia and the Pacific, heat is intensifying multi-hazard risks, intersecting with food systems, public health, infrastructure and oceans, and placing new pressures on health and livelihoods,” Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, said in a statement.

The Bezos Earth Fund says its approach is to take time to understand an area before committing money.

“We take the time before getting into an area to understand it and make sure we’re having the greatest impact that we possibly can,” Kelly Levin, chief of science, data, and systems change at Bezos Earth Fund, told Bloomberg.

Still, the clock is moving toward 2030.

Bezos remains one of the world’s wealthiest people, with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimating his fortune at about $272 billion. Forbes estimates the couple’s lifetime giving at about $4.7 billion.

Bezos has previously acknowledged that philanthropy comes with its own challenges.

“It’s not easy. Building Amazon was not easy,” he told CNN in 2022. “I’m finding … that charity, philanthropy, is very similar.”

The latest Pacific grants show where the Bezos Earth Fund is putting its money as the 2030 deadline gets closer. More than $7 billion still remains from the original $10 billion climate pledge, while the new funding is already supporting efforts to protect large areas of the Pacific and its marine ecosystems.

FAQs

How much did the Bezos Earth Fund give the Pacific?
More than $25 million in its latest grant round.

How much of Bezos’ climate pledge remains?
More than $7 billion remains to be awarded by 2030.