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Bezos is not the only billionaire to donate significant sums to the climate fight. Elon Musk announced earlier this year that he would donate a $100 million prize for a competition to remove carbon from air and water. Bill Gates pledged $1.5 billion for climate change as long as long as the sweeping infrastructure bill was passed. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has promised $500 million, Stewart and Lynda Resnick $750 million and Laurene Powell Jobs $3.5 billion.

The United Nations Environment Programme 2020 Emissions Gap Report found that the richest 1% of the world's population is responsible for 15% of emissions due to their extensive investments fossil fuels and high-carbon life, so the ultra-wealthy bears the \"greatest responsibility\" in climate change initiatives, according to the report.

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Toby Melville/Reuters, FILE
PHOTO: An electric car is charged at a roadside EV charge point, London, Oct. 19, 2021.
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Historically, philanthropies have allocated \"relatively small sums\" to address climate change, but it is now time for philanthropy to \"step up\" in the fight against climate change, according to McKinsey and Company's Sustainability Practice and Philanthropy service line.

In 2020, U.S.-based grant makers disbursed nearly $64 billion, but just $320 million of those funds went directly toward mitigating global warming, according to the report.

In addition, just 1.4% of U.S. philanthropic grant funding went to climate change in 2020, compared to 21.4% to health, 15.6% to public safety and 11.6% to community and economic development, according to the report.

While much of the capital to fight climate change will come from companies, governments and investors, philanthropies can also play a \"vital role\" by targeting the locations, industries and solutions that need the most support, according to the report.

\"Simply putting more money into climate solutions won’t be enough,\" the report states.

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Amir Cohen/Reuters, FILE
PHOTO: A balloon is seen during a demonstration by Israeli startup High Hopes Labs who are developing a balloon that captures carbon directly from the atmosphere at high altitudes in Petah Tikva, Israel, Nov. 3, 2021.
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It will be important to invest funds equitably, experts say

World leaders and those in the finance and philanthropy industries need to ensure the funds are distributed as equitably as possible, Pryce said.

As climate change is addressed, it is imperative that no one is left behind, \"whether that's people in our own country...or developing and emerging markets around the globe,\" she said.

G20 countries will also have to consider practices such as blended finance and social safety nets when it comes to rebuilding efforts for the escalated natural disasters that are already impacting developing regions, McLeod said.

\"Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, lots of parts of Latin America, when communities are obliterated by storms, floods, heatwaves, who pays for that?\" McLeod asked. \"And society pays for that.\"

However, more and more, solutions will need to be localized, McLeod said. Not every solution will work for every community, and it's not enough to wait on the federal government to pass sweeping legislations, she added.

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