Amazon commits $15 million from climate fund to APAC region, earmarks $3 million for India projects

Ecommerce giant Amazon will expand its Right Now Climate Fund in the Asia Pacific region, earmarking $15 million for biodiversity and climate resilience programmes, Amit Agarwal, the company’s senior vice president for India and emerging markets, announced on Monday.

Of this amount, the first $3 million will be used in India-specific projects, Agarwal announced in a post.

The fund’s first collaboration will be with the Centre for Wildlife Studies, to enable over 2,000 family farms to plant three lakh trees in the Western Ghats over three years. The Western Ghats house 30% of India’s total wildlife, including the largest population of elephants and tigers.

Amazon created the Right Now Climate Fund in 2019. It is a $100-million fund committed to nature-based solutions to restore and conserve forests, wetlands and grasslands across the world. Through this fund, the company finances projects to mitigate the impact of climate change and add green space to urban areas.