jeff bezos yacht emissions

Centibillionaire Jeff Bezos’ $500 million Koru superyacht emits an astounding 1,500 times more greenhouse gases than an average person. Inspite of being the largest sailing yacht in the world the 417-feet long vessel will be responsible for more than 7,150 tonnes of CO2 every year.

Even at the time of writing, the humongous sailing yacht is en route on a 4,000 mile journey from Gibraltar to the Americas and has currently gone dark somewhere in West Africa.

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Jeff Bezos’ New Yacht Is Finally Ready to Set Sail

Amazon’s founder has been spotted on Koru, a massive schooner with a design that evokes the golden age of sailing in the early 20th century.

By Kevin Koenig

Just in time for the high season of yachting in the Mediterranean, when multimillion-dollar megayachts descend on ports like Monte Carlo and St. Tropez, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has been photographed with his partner Lauren Sánchez on his new boat, Koru, off the coast of Spain.

Mr. Bezos’ vessel is a sailing yacht, a departure from the diesel-powered, floating palaces popular with other billionaires. But it is still massive. At 417 feet, Koru is the world’s largest sailing yacht, according to Boat International , and it cost an estimated $500 million to build, Bloomberg reported . (Parsifal III, the boat featured on Bravo’s reality series “Below Deck Sailing Yacht,” is 177 feet long — less than half the length of Koru — and cost $18 million , according to the website SuperYachtFan.)

A spokesperson for Mr. Bezos did not comment for this article; neither did Oceanco, Koru’s builder. Here is what to know about the boat.

For traditionalists, Koru is refreshing. At a time when yacht design skews outrageous — see the lizardlike, 262-foot Artefact or the otherworldly 463-foot Yas — Koru stands out as a schooner, a sailing vessel with two or more masts. Photos reveal a large sailboat with three masts, an on-deck pool and a voluptuous mermaid on the bow, that bears a resemblance to Ms. Sánchez. But otherwise, the sleek, classic lines suggest the patrician age of yachting in the early 20th century, said Robert B. MacKay, author of “The Golden Age of Newport Yachting: Between the Wars.”

“With the clipper bow and the dark hull and the masts,” Mr. MacKay said, referring to Koru’s concave, pointy forward section, “it reminds me of a boat built in 1930 for J.P. Morgan Jr., Corsair IV. It is almost like a reincarnation. It’s certainly at odds with the stuff the oligarchs are building — those look like bloated Clorox bottles.”

Compared with the world’s very largest motor yachts — built for sheer size and the accompanying bragging rights — Koru could almost be considered quaint. Azzam, one of the world’s largest motor yachts, is nearly 200 feet longer.

The Experience

Koru will be propelled primarily by the wind. “Sailboats are usually greener than most powerboats,” said Don Anderson, a former captain of M5 , the world’s largest single-masted sailboat, at 256 feet. “I’d like to think that Koru will be one of the most ecological yachts out there, with its sails and also with the technology that will be aboard.”

“When you’re on a sailboat, you’re more in touch with the wind and the waves than on a powerboat,” he continued. “You’re more susceptible to the elements, too. But you can leave California, and once you get past the Catalinas you can basically surf downwind all the way to Hawaii. All you need to do is run with the waves.”

Mr. Bezos has been a guest on similar boats, according to Bloomberg: In 2019, he was spotted on Eos , a 305-foot sailing yacht owned by Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg.

Bill Tripp, a Connecticut-based naval architect, said the appeal of this type of boat is clear: “When you are on a powerboat, you ask, ‘Are we there yet?’ and on a sailboat, you’re enjoying the ride and the ocean so much that you don’t ask that question.”

Koru will be trailed by Abeona, a 246-foot support vessel. Superyachts often have support vessels following along behind them. These “shadows,” as they are colloquially known, are for the “toys” — the ATVs, supercars, seaplanes, motorcycles, smaller boats, scuba gear, personal submarines and even helicopters that pleasure boaters might bring on a trip. According to its builder, this model of boat can carry these gadgets along with dozens of crew members. (Ms. Sanchez flies helicopters, and the couple was recently photographed taking a helicopter to board Abeona and then Koru.)

Abeona, a motor yacht, will have enough range to follow Koru from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean — a common course for yachts — on a single tank of gas.

The Kerfuffle

Koru set off a controversy last year — before it was even completed — in a face-off with the Dutch city of Rotterdam. The boat was built at Oceanco’s facility in Alblasserdam, the Netherlands, and needed to pass the historic Koningshaven Bridge, known as “De Hef,” in Rotterdam, to undergo testing in the North Sea.

When the city announced it would dismantle the bridge to allow the boat and its mainmast — an estimated 230 feet tall — to pass through unscathed, locals were angry. They planned a protest to throw eggs at the yacht as it cruised by. In the end, the bridge was not taken apart, and the yacht was towed to a different location to have its masts attached.

Koru is Maori for “coil” or “loop” and refers to the unfurling of a fern frond. The koru design is common in traditional Maori art, where it symbolizes new life, growth and peace. Mr. Bezos included a photo of a koru frond in an Instagram post on Jan. 1, 2022.

Brad Stone, who was the first to report on Koru, in his 2021 book “Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire,” said the name was “consistent with where we see him today.”

“He is no longer this single-minded tech guy,” Mr. Stone said. “He’s in media and Hollywood and has a new relationship.”

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Jeff Bezos’ yacht produces 7K tons of carbon emissions per year: report

Posted by Achumi | Nov 25, 2023 | News | 0

So much for smooth sailing. 

Jeff Bezos — who has pledged to spend billions of dollars to help fight climate change — nonetheless owns a $500 million superyacht that generates thousands of tons of carbon emissions each year, according to a new analysis by Indiana University researchers.

The Amazon founder’s 417-foot sailing yacht “Koru,” produces an astounding minimum of 7,154 tons of greenhouse gasses annually — roughly 447 times the entire annual carbon footprint of your average American, the Indiana researchers found. 

The findings, based on publicly-available data, come as the world’s third-richest man has committed to spending $10 billion over 10 years through the Bezos Earth Fund to combat the effects of climate change.

So far, the fund has doled out $1.84 billion, including for nature conservation and restoration, and transforming food systems. 

Koru and its support vessel, the Abeona, are the first yachts Bezos has purchased, according to Nautical Channel.

Billionaires such as Bezos, whose net worth is roughly $161 billion, “are invested in these issues like climate change and carbon emissions, and publicly, they are very vocal about that,” said Indiana anthropology PhD candidate Beatriz Barros, who analyzed the ship’s emissions with anthropologist Richard Wilk. 

“But because they are so rich and so powerful, they feel like they are entitled [to travel in carbon-producing superyachts], whereas you and I should drive less, should eat less meat,” she said. 

Boating industry experts have fawned over Koru’s “green” ability to travel via wind power, but Barros sniffed that Bezos’ three-masted goliath generates a slew of greenhouse gasses just by heating and cooling the vessel and powering the ship’s various over-the-top luxury amenities such as its sauna, pool and theater.

“I don’t see how, how in any way this can be considered to be environmentally friendly,” Barros said, whose findings with Wilk were first reported by The Guardian.

The superyacht, which was built by Netherlands-based Oceanco and made its maiden voyage in April, came with the 246-foot Abeona, which is decked out with jet skis and a helicopter pad to accommodate the personal chopper of Bezos’ fiancee, Lauren Sanchez.

Barros and Wilk’s analysis didn’t include the sister boat’s emissions.

Bezos’ wealth insulates him from the impact of environmental crises, said Dario Kenner, author of “Carbon Inequality: The Role of the Richest in Climate Change.”

“There is an emotional and physical disconnect from the rich and climate change,” said Kenner. 

“The poorest people live closest to toxic air facilities, refineries, places where pollution is dumped,” he said, explaining land is cheaper in those areas.

“If you’re rich, you’re rarely in contact with environmental disaster zones — you’re more insulated from extreme weather, from air pollution.”

Koru’s emissions aren’t the only rough seas Bezos has faced in recent years over his environmental bonafides.

In 2021, online critics torpedoed Bezos for reportedly traveling via helicopter to party on Bill Gates’ superyacht — just days before attending the COP26 climate summit in Scotland via private jet.

A spokesperson for Bezos told Observer.com at the time the billionaire used sustainable aviation fuel for his travels and pays for carbon offsets, which fund projects that reduce greenhouse gas pollution and cancel out carbon emissions generated by the trips.

The year before, hundreds of Amazon employees ripped the company for its ongoing contracts with oil and gas companies, months after then-CEO Bezos promised to bring the online retail giant’s operations to net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2040. 

Bezos and Bezos Earth Fund did not respond to requests for comment.

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Superyachts aim to go green — but at what cost?

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

It is hard to think of a more visible manifestation of great wealth and excessive consumption than a superyacht, as Russian oligarchs have discovered to their cost, following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

As western governments began detaining these very obvious luxury assets at harbours and shipyards around the world in successive rounds of economic sanctions aimed at Moscow, the targeted billionaires directed crews to steer the vessels to safe havens such as the Maldives in the Indian Ocean or Turkey in the Mediterranean. Roman Abramovich’s 163-metre Eclipse, one of the world’s largest superyachts and estimated to cost more than $1bn, found refuge in the Turkish port of Marmaris.

Long before the latest Ukraine war, however, the superyacht industry faced a problem unrelated to any support the ships’ wealthy owners may have provided to warmongering authoritarian regimes: their impact on the environment and the impression they gave that the rich could not care less about climate change.

Most superyachts — typically defined as a leisure vessel more than 30 metres or 100ft in length — are essentially motor vessels like small cruise liners, catering to proprietors or charterers and a few pampered guests. The biggest have helicopter pads, swimming pools and gyms as well as luxury suites. Some even have mini-submarines.

Very few are sailing yachts, and most of them consume vast quantities of diesel. Only now are manufacturers starting to develop new technologies such as hydrogen-powered electric propulsion that will cut emissions.

In the meantime, building the boats, operating them and, eventually, scrapping them all have a damaging effect on the environment. The same is true of aircraft and cars, but the very visibility of superyachts in tourist hotspots, makes their ecological footprint an increasingly sensitive topic. The global fleet has grown more than sixfold since 1985 to reach more than 5,200, according to Superyacht Times . And the fleet cruises the world’s vulnerable oceans.

“For sure, now it’s really high up the agenda — there’s been a fundamental shift,” says Monaco-based superyacht designer Espen Oeino, who reckons it is only in the past few years that most proprietors have really started to pay attention to yacht emissions. Clients ask him what can be done to reduce energy consumption onboard, both for propulsion and for the so-called “hotel load” of air-conditioning and other services, and even how to build the boat in the first place in a responsible way.

Rob Doyle, another naval architect who designs superyachts and is based in Kinsale in Ireland, agrees that more owners are beginning to take notice of the need to reduce carbon emissions and protect the environment, though many are still concerned about the cost. “There is still a huge amount of greenwashing,” he says. “You look at the magazines and you’ll never see a bad superyacht.”

And bad they often are. Research by anthropologists Beatriz Barros and Richard Wilk of Indiana University into the carbon footprints of the super-rich found that yachts contributed an outsized share of the carbon emissions of the billionaires who own them — far more than their private jets or mansions.

For former Chelsea Football Club owner Abramovich, for example, of the 31,200 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent he is calculated to have emitted in 2018, no less than 22,400 tonnes came from his yachts. Yacht emissions for Bernard Arnault, owner of LVMH and France’s richest man, accounted for nearly 9,000 tonnes of his total of 10,400 tonnes.

There are other ways for the wealthy to be embarrassed by their superyachts. Dutch shipyard Oceanco is facing resistance from angry locals after asking the city of Rotterdam to temporarily dismantle the old Koningshaven Bridge so that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s new three-masted vessel — this one is a sailing yacht costing hundreds of millions of dollars — can reach the port and the open sea.

But the impact on the climate is still the environmental whale in the room for yacht owners, builders and designers: Bill Gates and Elon Musk are both big carbon emitters, but their 2018 numbers were much lower than those of their fellow billionaires because they did not have yachts, the Barros-Wilk paper showed.

The accelerating effort to green superyachts reflects similar moves in the aircraft and vehicle industries to adopt new technologies and systems that help to reduce or eliminate carbon emissions and other pollution.

For superyacht designers and builders, the process starts with the shape of the hull or hulls, because there are few things so wasteful of energy as pushing a heavy metal or composite vessel through a fluid as dense as water. For both Oeino and Doyle, this search for what Oeino calls the “geometry of an easily driven hull” means looking at multihulls (catamarans or trimarans) for the next generation of big yachts, because they are designed to skim along the surface of the sea rather than laboriously plough through it, even if there are obvious constraints on weight and what you can do with the interior space.

Next, propulsion. There are already diesel-electric boats in service, which use diesel generators running at optimum revolutions (more economical, less polluting) to power electric motors, and, in future, the idea is to run the electric motors with the output from hydrogen fuel cells.

Then there is the electricity needed for the yacht’s hotel load, principally air-conditioning and the making of fresh water from seawater, but also lights and other electrical systems. Solar panels can produce some power but rarely enough even to run a present-day superyacht at anchor, so to charge batteries and run the boat, some other form of carbon-free electricity generation is needed to replace the diesel generators widely in use today.

For Barros and Wilk, none of this can justify owning any kind of superyacht. They write: “While many billionaires have taken pro-environmental actions in their personal lives or their corporate connections or donate money to climate change organisations and purchase carbon offsets, none of these actions actually ‘cancels out’ their total emissions. A 90-metre yacht can be touted as energy efficient or environmentally friendly but, as critics of ‘eco-chic’ point out, it is still a huge waste of resources, a frivolous luxury in a warming world.”

But the industry is trying. Doyle’s answer, developed by his own firm and Van Geest Design, is Domus (“home” in Latin), a project for a 40-metre sailing trimaran described as “the first truly zero-emission yacht” over 750 gross tonnes, which would generate electricity to charge its batteries from solar panels, hydrogen fuel cells and its own propellers acting as dynamos when the boat is sailing.

“It came out of a conversation we had with a client,” says Doyle. “We proposed this project with fuel cells, and regenerative sailing. It’s silent . . . people just want to listen to the water and the wind coming across and not have the hum of generators or the whiff of diesel.”

People just want to listen to the water and the wind coming across and not have the hum of generators or the whiff of diesel Rob Doyle, yacht designer

Hydrogen propulsion is in its infancy for mass transport. The gas is difficult to store, though it can be made from methanol, and there is, as yet, no distribution network for the fuel. But the interest in hydrogen is just one sign of how the yacht industry is hunting for ways to lower emissions in the years ahead as the pressure from regulators — and public opinion — increases.

Oeino notes that in some places, including the World Heritage Site fjords such as Geirangerfjord in his native Norway, rules limiting emissions are already in place and becoming stricter, and will help to force the pace of the greening of ships and yachts.

The first systems for big yachts to be fully powered by renewables are likely to be the tenders, the smaller boats that ferry people to and from the shore, which are already starting to shift to electric propulsion, and the equipment that contributes to the hotel load when the ship is stationary. Hotel loads can, in any case, be reduced by sensible design and operation, given that indoor superyacht spaces are heavily air-conditioned all the time despite owners and guests spending a huge amount of their time outside, on deck.

Transocean travel with zero emissions is a much bigger ask, says Oeino. “A lot of stuff is already being implemented, but the full electric big yacht with zero emissions is still not a reality,” he explains, because it is impossible to store or produce enough energy onboard.

“It will be a combination of things that will bring us all to lower emissions and eventually zero emissions.” 

‘Yachts for science’ can be a breakthrough for explorers

For yacht owners who feel guilty not only about their environmental footprint but also about how little they use their expensive boats, Rosie O’Donnell has the perfect solution: Yachts for Science .

YFS, which its co-ordinator O’Donnell describes as “a dating agency, almost like a Tinder for the sea”, is a platform to match idle yachts and their crews with scientists in search of a vessel that can reach remote areas and allow them to research everything from coral reefs and manta rays to great white sharks. In some cases, the owners and their families like to be on board for the ride.

“It’s for people who want to be a bit philanthropic so they have got something more to talk about than sitting on the back of their boat in St Tropez drinking cocktails,” says O’Donnell. “It’s about making the ownership more worthwhile.”

The idea of YFS fits with the trend among yachtowners to commission robust so-called expedition or explorer yachts that can travel long distances, to the Antarctic for example, rather than being satisfied with something that will buzz at high speeds around the resorts of the Mediterranean or the Caribbean.

“The yachting industry is always looking for ways to reinvent itself,” says Dominic Byrne of Arksen Marine , a builder that backs YFS and is building a new range of high-tech motor yachts. “People are looking to go further afield, and they are looking to do it in an eco-friendly way as much as possible.”

This article is part of FT Wealth , a section providing in-depth coverage of philanthropy, entrepreneurs, family offices, as well as alternative and impact investment

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International Edition

Private planes, mansions and superyachts: What gives billionaires like Musk and Abramovich such a massive carbon footprint

Distinguished Professor and Provost's Professor of Anthropology; Director of the Open Anthropology Institute, Indiana University

Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology, Indiana University

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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Tesla’s Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have been vying for the world’s richest person ranking all year after the former’s wealth soared a staggering US$160 billion in 2020, putting him briefly in the top spot .

Musk isn’t alone in seeing a significant increase in wealth during a year of pandemic, recession and death. Altogether, the world’s billionaires saw their wealth surge over $1.9 trillion in 2020, according to Forbes.

Those are astronomical numbers, and it’s hard to get one’s head around them without some context. As anthropologists who study energy and consumer culture, we wanted to examine how all that wealth translated into consumption and the resulting carbon footprint.

Walking in a billionaire’s shoes

We found that billionaires have carbon footprints that can be thousands of times higher than those of average Americans.

The wealthy own yachts, planes and multiple mansions, all of which contribute greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. For example, a superyacht with a permanent crew, helicopter pad, submarines and pools emits about 7,020 tons of CO2 a year, according to our calculations, making it by the far worst asset to own from an environmental standpoint. Transportation and real estate make up the lion’s share of most people’s carbon footprint, so we focused on calculating those categories for each billionaire.

To pick a sample of billionaires, we started with the 2020 Forbes List of 2,095 billionaires. A random or representatives sample of billionaire carbon footprints is impossible because most wealthy people shy away from publicity , so we had to focus on those whose consumption is public knowledge. This excluded most of the superrich in Asia and the Middle East .

We combed 82 databases of public records to document billionaires’ houses, vehicles, aircraft and yachts. After an exhaustive search, we started with 20 well-known billionaires whose possessions we were able to ascertain, while trying to include some diversity in gender and geography. We have submitted our paper for peer review but plan to continue adding to our list.

We then used a wide range of sources, such as the U.S. Energy Information Administration and Carbon Footprint , to estimate the annual CO2 emissions of each house, aircraft, vehicle and yacht. In some cases we had to estimate the size of houses from satellite images or photos and the use of private aircraft and yachts by searching the popular press and drawing on other studies . Our results are based on analyzing typical use of each asset given its size and everything else we could learn.

We did not try to calculate each asset’s “ embodied carbon ” emissions – that is, how much CO2 is burned throughout the supply chain in making the product – or the emissions produced by their family, household employees or entourage. We also didn’t include the emissions of companies of which they own part or all, because that would have added another significant degree of complexity. For example, we didn’t calculate the emissions of Tesla or Amazon when calculating Musk’s or Bezos’ footprints.

In other words, these are all likely conservative estimates of how much they emit.

Your carbon footprint

To get a sense of perspective, let’s start with the carbon footprint of the average person.

Residents of the U.S., including billionaires, emitted about 15 tons of CO2 per person in 2018. The global average footprint is smaller, at just about 5 tons per person.

In contrast, the 20 people in our sample contributed an average of about 8,190 tons of CO2 in 2018. But some produced far more greenhouse gases than others.

The jet-setting billionaire

Roman Abramovich, who made most of his $19 billion fortune trading oil and gas, was the biggest polluter on our list. Outside of Russia, he is probably best known as the headline-grabbing owner of London’s Chelsea Football Club.

Abramovich cruises the Mediterranean in his superyacht, named the Eclipse , which at 162.5 meters bow to stern is the second-biggest in the world, rivaling some cruise ships. And he hops the globe on a custom-designed Boeing 767 , which boasts a 30-seat dining room. He takes shorter trips in his Gulfstream G650 jet, one of his two helicopters or the submarine on his yacht.

He maintains homes in many countries, including a mansion in London’s Kensington Park Gardens, a chateau in Cap D’Antibes in France and a 28-hectare estate in St. Barts that once belonged to David Rockefeller . In 2018, he left the U.K. and settled in Israel , where he became a dual citizen and bought a home in 2020 for $64.5 million.

We estimate that he was responsible for at least 33,859 metric tons of CO2 emissions in 2018 – more than two-thirds from his yacht, which is always ready to use at a moment’s notice year-round.

Massive mansions and private jets

Bill Gates, currently the world’s fourth-richest person with $124 billion, is a “modest” polluter – by billionaire standards – and is typical of those who may not own a giant yacht but make up for it with private jets.

Co-founder of Microsoft, he retired in 2020 to manage the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest charity, with an endowment of $50 billion.

In the 1990s, Gates built Xanadu – named after the vast fictional estate in Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” – at a cost of $127 million in Medina, Washington. The giant home covers 6,131 square meters, with a 23-car garage, a 20-person cinema and 24 bathrooms. He also owns at least five other dwellings in Southern California, the San Juan Islands in Washington state, North Salem, New York, and New York City, as well as a horse farm , four private jets, a seaplane and “a collection” of helicopters .

We estimated his annual footprint at 7,493 metric tons of carbon, mostly from a lot of flying.

The environmentally minded tech CEO

South African-born Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, has a surprisingly low carbon footprint despite being the world’s second-richest person, with $177 billion – and he seems intent on setting an example for other billionaires .

He doesn’t own a superyacht and says he doesn’t even take vacations .

We calculated a relatively modest carbon footprint for him in 2018, thanks to his eight houses and one private jet. This year, his carbon footprint would be even lower because in 2020 he sold all of his houses and promised to divest the rest of his worldly possessions .

While his personal carbon footprint is still hundreds of times higher than that of an average person, he demonstrates that the superrich still have choices to make and can indeed lower their environmental impact if they so choose.

His estimated footprint from the assets we looked at was 2,084 tons in 2018.

The value of naming and shaming

The aim of our ongoing research is to get people to think about the environmental burden of wealth.

While plenty of research has shown that rich countries and wealthy people produce far more than their share of greenhouse gas emissions, these studies can feel abstract and academic, making it harder to change this behavior.

[ Like what you’ve read? Want more? Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter .]

We believe “shaming” – for lack of a better word – superrich people for their energy-intensive spending habits can have an important impact, revealing them as models of overconsumption that people shouldn’t emulate.

Newspapers, cities and local residents made an impact during the California droughts of 2014 and 2015 by “drought shaming” celebrities and others who were wasting water, seen in their continually green lawns . And the Swedes came up with a new term – “ flygskam ” or flying shame – to raise awareness about the climate impact of air travel.

Climate experts say that to have any hope of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, countries must cut their emissions in half by 2030 and eliminate them by 2050.

Asking average Americans to adopt less carbon-intensive lifestyles to achieve this goal can be galling and ineffective when it would take about 550 of their lifetimes to equal the carbon footprint of the average billionaire on our list.

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Jeff Bezos’ superyacht ‘Koru’ produces 7,000 tons of carbon emissions every year: Study

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Jeff Bezos has come under fire for claiming to be a supporter of climate change while owning a superyacht that produces thousands of tons of carbon emissions each year, according to a recent analysis by researchers at Indiana University.

The New York Post reported that Bezos’ giant 417-foot yacht named “Koru” produces, at minimum, 7,154 tons of greenhouse gases on a yearly basis. This amounts to about 447 times the entire annual carbon footprint left behind by the average American.

Bezos’ actions and what he claims to support do not seem to align, with Forbes reporting earlier this year that the Bezos Earth Fund had put $34.5 million toward better reporting on climate and sustainable food.

At the time, the donation had made the Earth Fund’s total amount given to the cause to be $1.66 billion. In 2020, Bezos pledged $10 billion over the next ten years to fight the apparent impact of climate change. Since that time, Bezos has only accomplished 17% of the initial goal.

Indiana anthropology PhD candidate Beatriz Barros, who researched Bezos’ yacht’s emissions with anthropologist Richard Wilk, said that billionaires appear to be heavily invested in issues such as climate change and carbon emission, but their actions do not align with what they say.

“[B]ecause they are so rich and so powerful, they feel like they are entitled [to travel in carbon-producing superyachts], whereas you and I should drive less, should eat less meat,” she said.

Though experts in the boating industry have praised Koru’s “green” capabilities, Barros noted that the yacht still produces a massive amount of greenhouse gases just by heating and cooling. She went on to mention that greenhouse gases are also released when the ship powers its luxury amenities, such as its theater, pool, and sauna.

“I don’t see how, how in any way this can be considered to be environmentally friendly,” Barros said , according to the Guardian.

Dario Kenner, author of “Carbon Inequality: The Role of the Richest in Climate Change,” has noted that Bezos has the ability to insulate himself from the negative impact of environmental issues.

“There is an emotional and physical disconnect from the rich and climate change,” Kenner said.

“The poorest people live closest to toxic air facilities, refineries, places where pollution is dumped,” he continued.

“If you’re rich, you’re rarely in contact with environmental disaster zones — you’re more insulated from extreme weather, from air pollution.”

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The post Jeff Bezos’ superyacht ‘Koru’ produces 7,000 tons of carbon emissions every year: Study appeared first on TheBlaze .

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Superyacht sales surge prompts fresh calls for curbs on their emissions

Campaigners say a superyacht can produce 1,500 times more carbon than a typical family car, and the polluters should pay

The rising fortunes of the world’s billionaires during the pandemic helped fuel a record £5.3bn in superyacht sales last year, prompting calls for new curbs on their emissions.

New figures reveal that 887 superyachts were sold in 2021, an increase of more than 75% compared with the previous year. Yachting brokers say some of the demand has been from wealthy clients seeking a secure refuge from the pandemic.

Sam Tucker, head of the superyachts team at VesselsValue, the maritime and aviation data firm which compiled the report, said: “It has been the strongest year on record for the number of transactions and the money spent.” He said low interest rates and rising stock markets had meant more disposable income for the world’s richest people.

A superyacht is typically defined as a privately owned vessel 78 feet (24 metres) or more in length. According to industry data, there are more than 9,300 on the seas worth a total in excess of £50bn.

While maritime construction yards are keen to promote the green credentials of many superyachts, they are major polluters. It has been estimated a superyacht with permanent crew, helicopter pad, submarines and pools emits about 7,020 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, more than 1,500 times higher than a typical family car.

Paul Stretesky, a professor of social sciences at Northumbria University and co-author of a 2019 report, Measuring the Ecological Impact of the Wealthy, said more financial levies were needed on the superyacht industry.

He said: “The damage done by this conspicuous consumption is incredible. It’s not something we should aspire to, it’s something we should stop.” Stretesky’s report found that the annual fuel costs of a superyacht can be about £300,000.

A report last year by the environmental platform EcoWatch analysed the carbon footprint of 20 billionaires. It found a superyacht was “by far the worst asset to own from an environmental standpoint”.

The Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich , who is reported to have owned at least five superyachts, topped the list published in February last year, accounting for estimated annual carbon emissions of nearly 34,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. The biggest vessel in his fleet is the 163-metre (535ft) superyacht Eclipse.

It has nine decks, with the top one containing two helipads and a garage. It has a 16-metre (53ft) swimming pool that can be converted into a dancefloor. It is estimated to be worth £1bn after extensive refurbishments.

Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos was near the bottom of the carbon footprint league table in last year’s analysis, but has rapidly climbed up the table in 2021 with a trip to the outer edge of space and reports he had commissioned a new superyacht with the project name Y721. The £350m yacht will accommodate 18 guests with a 40-stong crew and will be escorted by its own support vessel.

New rules were due to come into force in 2016 to curb some of the most dangerous nitrogen oxide emissions from superyachts, which can be about 300 times as potent as carbon dioxide at heating the atmosphere.

The industry successfully lobbied for the International Maritime Organization (IMO) emission standards to be delayed for five years for superyachts under 500 tonnes. They were finally implemented in January last year, but the US Coast Guard has said it will not enforce the regulations after lobbying by the marine industry which says the bulky equipment required to remove pollution out of engine exhaust is impractical on many yachts.

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Jeff Bezos' yacht reportedly cost $500 million and is the largest sailing yacht in the world. Here's what we know.

• Jeff Bezos ' new $500 million megayacht Koru set sail this summer.
• At 417 feet long, it's the world's largest sailing yacht and even boasts a sculpture resembling his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez.
• Here's everything we know about Bezos' yacht.

Jeff Bezos' new megayacht set sail this summer, with the founder and former Amazon CEO and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez crisscrossing Europe to show it off.

At 417 feet long, the vessel is the world's largest sailing yacht and cost an estimated $500 million. The yacht is named Koru , which means "loop" or "coil" in the Māori language and often signifies new beginnings.

Koru joins a large class of flashy billionaires' yachts , including the 305-foot-long Eos, which belongs to billionaire Barry Diller and fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg.

Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison owns a yacht called Musashi, which is 288 feet long.

Bezos commissioned the enormous boat from the Dutch custom yacht builder Oceanco, and it took years to construct.

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In February, the yacht underwent its first sea trials, a series of tests usually conducted in the last phases of construction. Koru made its maiden voyage in April, traveling from the Netherlands to Gibraltar.

The vessel has a pool on deck, and the prow features a mermaid sculpture that bears a striking resemblance to Bezos' then-girlfriend Sanchez. A second "support yacht," which has an on-deck helipad, accompanies Koru on its travels.

Sanchez has said the sculpture affixed to Bezos' yacht isn't her. "I'm very flattered, but it's not," she told Vogue. The sculpture is apparently of the Norse goddess Freyja, one of Bezos' favorite figures from mythology.

Bezos and Sanchez were first seen aboard the yacht along the coast of Spain in May, shortly before news broke that the couple had gotten engaged. The couple spent the rest of the summer on board traveling to various destinations, stopping at the Cannes Film Festival, sailing down the Italian Riviera, and making their way to Croatia.

In August, the yacht played host to an engagement party for Bezos and Sanchez , which reportedly drew guests including Bill Gates, Whitney Wolfe Herd, Ari Emanuel, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

While yacht season was apparently enjoyable for the couple, it was only after the vessel stirred up quite a bit of controversy: Koru's masts were so tall that the yacht nearly required the dismantling of a historic bridge in the Netherlands in order for it to pass through.

Locals planned to egg Bezos' superyacht if the bridge came down. Following the public outcry, Oceanco withdrew its request for the city to take apart the bridge.

And despite this massive purchase, Bezos' net worth is still well over $100 billion.

Watch: What it takes to build a 164-foot superyacht

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Jeff bezos’ superyacht produces 7k tons of carbon emissions per year: report.

So much for smooth sailing. 

Jeff Bezos — who has pledged to spend billions of dollars to help fight climate change — nonetheless owns a $500 million superyacht that generates thousands of tons of carbon emissions each year, according to a new analysis by Indiana University researchers.

The Amazon founder’s 417-foot sailing yacht “Koru,” produces an astounding minimum of 7,154 tons of greenhouse gasses annually — roughly 447 times the entire annual carbon footprint of your average American, the Indiana researchers found. 

The findings, based on publicly-availa... [Short citation of 8% of the original article]

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Jeff Bezos’ Space Joyride Emitted a Lifetime’s Worth of Carbon Pollution

A new report chronicles the staggeringly unequal distribution of carbon emissions tied to the ultra-wealthy's lifestyles..

Social media erupted this week when a single passage from this year’s World Inequality Report went viral comparing the carbon footprint of a short space joyride to a lifetime’s worth of emissions for the world’s poorest. The statistic perfectly encapsulates the unequal distribution of between those who cause climate damage and those who suffer from it.

The report doesn’t name the two billionaires most often associated with space travel: Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Musk’s SpaceX has been launching plenty of rockets , though none for tourism purposes yet. Bezos’ Blue Origin has, though, including sending the CEO himself in a heavily covered event in July. (Richard Branson, a third billionaire, has also sent himself to the edge of space .) All of those flights have carbon costs alongside their fiscal ones.

A few viral posts misinterpreted what the passage in the report was saying, so to set the record straight, this is what that section said:

An 11-minute flight emits no fewer than 75 tonnes of carbon per passenger once indirect emissions are taken into account (and more likely, in the 250-1,000 tonnes range). At the other end of the distribution, about one billion individuals emit less than one tonne per person per year. Over their lifetime, this group of one billion individuals does not emit more than 75 tonnes of carbon per person.

Though the passage doesn’t reference Jeff Bezos’ venture to the brink of ( but not quite ) space, it is a close enough substitute for that 11-minute benchmark put forward by the report. (To be clear, Blue Origin relies on fuel that itself doesn’t emit carbon dioxide when burned but is made through a very carbon-intensive process .) And the team made very conservative estimates, too, noting that the actual range of emissions was probably much higher than 75 tons per person. What the report shows is that the carbon cost of a few minutes of weightlessness equals the lifetime carbon output of an individual in the bottom billion.

It highlights unequal contributions made by someone who commutes in a private jet or, say, has a business devoted to launching rockets versus subsistence farmers. What’s more, those who can afford space flight will largely be insulated from the climate damage their trips cause while those in poor countries will be forced to bear the brunt of those impacts. After returning to Earth, Bezos said he realized we have “one planet, and we share it and it’s fragile.” While flying on a Blue Origin rocket may have opened his eyes to that, it doesn’t negate the fact that space tourism isn’t a very equal way to share the planet’s resources.

The report also noted that the top 1% wealthiest individuals emit about 110 tons of carbon emissions per year, an extreme number dwarfed by the top .1% (467 tons) and the top .01% (2,530 tons). So all high-altitude flights aside, the wealthiest individuals still produce many times more carbon pollution in an average year than an individual in the bottom billion does in a lifetime.

Blue Origin’s next flight is planned for Saturday, when the football player-turned-talk show host Michael Strahan will climb aboard a rocket alongside four paying customers.

More: How Climate Policy Can Combat Extreme Poverty

Updated, 12/13/21, 3:05 p.m. ET: This post has been updated to clarify that burning Blue Origin’s fuel doesn’t emit carbon dioxide. The process to make it is carbon-intensive, however.

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Has the World Finally Had a Glimpse of Jeff Bezos’s $500 Million Mega-Yacht?

By Shivani Vora

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is appears to be getting closer to welcoming the superyacht he reportedly commissioned in 2018: a fancy toy fitting for the world’s second-richest person, given that it costs a reported $500 million and breaks one world record after another.

Called Y721, this vessel of all vessels is being custom designed by Dutch builder Oceanco and was spotted at a shipyard last week in Zwijndrecht, a town in the western Netherlands. It’s reportedly heading to another Netherlands town, Alblasserdam, for a final fitting. With a length of 417 feet, Y721 is the biggest sailing yacht in the world and the longest vessel to be built in the Netherlands. Features include a black hull, classic shape, three large decks, and three masts.

Superyacht Bravo Eugenia , belonging to the U.S. billionaire Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, was built by Oceanco, which is also rumored to be behind Bezos’s new massive vessel.

Y721 is going to totally change the world of yachting with its design and innovation, says Fernando Nicholson, a luxury yacht sales broker with the yachting company Camper & Nicholsons. “It’s a boat with the latest technology and bells and whistles that have never been seen,” he says. “This will be the standard for all superyachts to follow, but in years to come, when its features become more affordable. Right now, only someone with Bezos’s wealth can swing the cost.”

The superyacht is said to be modeled after Oceanco’s famous yacht, the Black Pearl , which the company site says , “is one of the largest and most ecological sailing yachts in the world. She can cross the Atlantic without burning even a liter of fossil fuel.” Y721 will go through sea trails following its fitting-out in Alblasserdam and is expected to be ready sometime next year.

The Flying Fox , allegedly owned by Bezos.

However, it’s only one of two new boats for Bezos: He has also commissioned a shadow vessel called YS 7512 from builder Damen Yachts. This support ship measures 246 feet in length and accommodates 45 additional crew and guests. It will also feature a helipad and meeting space and have a vast amount of storage for Bezos’s endless number of water toys, with diving and snorkeling gear, jet and water skis, waterslides, and surfboards among the bunch. Shadow vessels are a growing phenomenon in the superyacht industry and one more extra toy that their owners want to have at the ready, says Nicholson. “You see them more and more now as an add-on to a superyacht purchase,” he says. “They’ve almost become a must.”

There’s no doubt that Bezos will be sailing the high seas in full panache and style come 2022. But really, is there any other way when you have more money than almost anyone else in the world and attract an endless amount of attention too?

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Jeff Bezos’ Superyacht Generates 447 Times the Yearly Carbon Emissions of Average US Household

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ triple-masted $500 million superyacht is far from climate-friendly, generating hundreds of times the annual carbon footprint of a typical American household. 

At 417 feet, “Koru” is the world’s largest sailing yacht. It produces a whopping 7,154 tons of greenhouse gasses on a per-annum basis, or about 447 times the entire annual carbon footprint of the average US household, the New York Post reported, citing Indiana researchers. 

Indiana anthropology Ph.D. candidate Beatriz Barros and anthropologist Richard Wilk led the research into Koru’s emissions. 

Barros said, “But because they are so rich and so powerful, they feel like they are entitled [to travel in carbon-producing superyachts], whereas you and I should drive less, should eat less meat.” 

Despite Koru’s “green” ability to travel via the three masts, she said plenty of greenhouse gasses are still released to provide electricity on the vessel – typically by diesel marine generators. 

Meanwhile, the billionaires advocate for climate change while sailing around the world in luxury superyachts and jetting across continents in Gulfstream G500s that emit large amounts of carbon emissions. Then they advocate for laws to ban gas stoves, phase out petrol vehicles, ban cow farts with the eventual goal of insect burgers, and other radical structural changes to society that mirror WEF’s global reset plan. 

This all comes days before Thursday’s United Nations climate summit begins in Dubai. 

The two-week summit, COP28, also comes as the ‘green’ energy bubble is melting. 

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Zuckerberg Trying To Catch Up To Bezos's Yacht Game: Meta Platforms CEO Spends $330 Million On Yachts

O wning a superyacht is a rite of passage for tech billionaires. Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon.com Inc. Founder Jeff Bezos, two of the wealthiest people on the planet, have each made headlines with their extravagant yacht purchases. Zuckerberg recently acquired two luxury vessels totaling $330 million, including a yacht and a support yacht. 

While $330 million is a lot of money, it's not going to put a significant dent in Zuckerberg's net worth. According to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List from March 7, Zuckerberg is worth $179.5 billion. A $330 million expenditure comes out to 0.18% of that. That's the equivalent of someone with a $1 million net worth spending $1,800 on a fancy canoe.

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Zuckerberg’s flagship purchase is the Launchpad, a 387-foot beauty that boasts a helipad, dive center and decompression chamber — perfect for Zuckerberg’s adventurous spirit. Additional features include a massive observation lounge, a pool and a bar area. Industry publication Luxury Launches notes it will likely cost Zuckerberg at least $30 million per year to operate Launchpad.

Accommodating 24 guests and a crew of 48, Launchpad offers luxury and comfort on a grand scale. Zuckerberg’s second purchase, the support vessel Wingman, provides additional space and amenities, including a helideck and a dive center. Wingman includes space for a variety of toys, such as a submersible, various rescue tenders, diving gear, Vespa scooters and a host of other vehicles and equipment. 

Originally commissioned by Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin, the ship remained in its Dutch shipyard for some time before the Dutch authorities allowed its sale to a non-Russian — Zuckerberg. 

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In terms of size and expense, Bezos’s superyacht and his support vessel dwarfs Zuckerberg’s. Bezos owns Koru, the world's largest sailing yacht, which reportedly cost at least $500 million. His support ship Abeona is a 246-foot motor yacht that carries crew and an array of vehicles and supplies. Bezos took steps in late 2023 to hide his yacht's location from the public , turning off Koru's automatic identification system (AIS), a data tracker that transmits a ship's course and other information to improve safety and communication with nearby ships. 

Other billionaires, including LVMH Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault, also own yachts. Arnault owns Symphony a 333-foot luxury yacht. While Bezos's 417-foot yacht is gigantic and ostentatious, it is also surpassed by other mega yachts. The House of Nahyan, the royal family of Abu Dhabi who are considered the richest family in the world , owns the Azzam, the biggest yacht in the world at 591 feet. 

As these tech titans continue to push the boundaries of wealth and extravagance, their superyachts serve as symbols of their success and status in the world of billionaires.

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© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

This article Zuckerberg Trying To Catch Up To Bezos's Yacht Game: Meta Platforms CEO Spends $330 Million On Yachts originally appeared on Benzinga.com .

Bezos Earth Fund Invests $60 Million In Centers To Improve Alternative Meats

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The Bezos Earth Fund—a Jeff Bezos-backed philanthropic initiative fighting climate change— announced Tuesday it was investing $60 million to create centers that will focus on targeting challenges in biomanufacturing and “invent(ing) our way out of climate change,” according to the Fund’s vice chair and Bezos’ fiancee , Lauren Sanchez.

The Bezos Earth Fund is investing $60 million to address “major technological barriers to reducing ... [+] cost, increasing quality, and boosting nutritional benefit” of alternative meats.

The Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein will attempt to advance science and technology to address “major technological barriers to reducing cost, increasing quality, and boosting nutritional benefit of alternative proteins,” according to the Fund’s press release.

The centers will be tied to universities and will be set up over the next five years, director of Future of Food Andy Jarvis, told Bloomberg.

The $60 million is part of the Bezos Earth Fund’s $1 billion commitment to transforming food and agriculture systems in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The news of the Bezos Earth Fund’s investment in improving quality of alternative proteins comes just one week after Oscar Mayer announced it was partnering with NotCo, Inc.—another organization backed by the Amazon founder—to release the first plant-based Oscar Mayer offerings, NotHotDogs and NotSausages.

Forbes Valuation

Forbes estimates Bezos to be worth about $193.7 billion as of Tuesday afternoon, making him the third-wealthiest person in the world.

Key Background

In 2020, Bezos—who made most of his money through founding and now chairing Amazon—pledged to spend $10 billion through the Earth Fund over a decade to fight the impact of climate change. That same year, he announced the Earth Fund had given $791 million to 16 organizations working to combat climate change, including $100 million to the World Wildlife Fund and $100 million to the Environmental Defense Fund, though Forbes reported the Earth Fund announced just $400 million in grants in 2021 and almost $300 million in grants in 2022. Recently, the Bezos Earth Fund announced a $5 million grant to the Jane Goodall Institute to expand conservation efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo.

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Jeff Bezos Is Investing $60M in Plant-Based Meat Research

The billionaire's bezos earth fund will use the funds to improve the quality, taste and cost of sustainable protein products..

The Bezos Earth Fund, a philanthropic organization launched by billionaire Jeff Bezos in 2020, is ramping up its commitment to food system transformations with a $60 million investment in alternative protein.

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The funds will establish the Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein, a series of research centers focused on boosting the quality and nutritional benefits of sustainable protein products. The initiative also aims to enhance the flavor and texture of alternative meat, in addition to bringing down prices—two challenges alternative meat startups have had to overcome. “Their inventions will make plant-based lab-grown meats cheaper, healthier and tastier,” said Lauren Sánchez, Bezos’s fiancée and vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, while announcing the investment at the Aspen Ideas climate conference on March 12.

The investment is part of the organization’s $1 billion commitment to food transformation, which has previously seen grants given to projects related to methane emission reductions, the potential of seaweed farming and alternatives to crop-burning, among others. The Bezos Earth Fund additionally supports nature conservation, environmental justice and decarbonization efforts and reports having given a total of $2 billion through more than 230 grants since its founding in 2020. As announced by Bezos during its launch, the organization plans to give out $10 billion by 2030 —which would make it the largest-ever philanthropic commitment to fight climate change.

What’s the environmental potential of alternative protein?

The rise of meatless products show promise in reducing the significant environmental impact of our current food systems. Animal agriculture accounts for a fifth of planet-warming emissions , according to the UN Environment Programme. Meat consumption is only expected to grow, with estimates suggesting it could increase by 50 percent in the next 25 years.

But the alternative meat industry has in recent years suffered from inflation and economic instability. In addition to faltering sales , companies have experienced a sharp drawback in investments and funding . High prices don’t help—alternative meat products can cost twice as much as traditional beef and four times as much as chicken . According to a study from the nonprofit Good Food Institute, consumers rank price, followed by taste, as the most important factor encouraging or discouraging the purchase of plant-based products.

This hasn’t deterred Bezos, the second wealthiest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $195.2 billion . The Amazon (AMZN) founder has invested in numerous alternative protein companies, including Nature’s Fynd and Motif, which both also received funding from fellow billionaire Bill Gates . And Bezos is a backer of NotCo, a Chilean plant-based food company that recently partnered up with meat producer Oscar Mayer to release products like NotHogDogs and NotSausages later this year.

The Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein hope to break through barriers in alternative protein production through advancements in science and technology that will include cell biology and engineering innovations. “We need to feed 10 billion people with healthy, sustainable food throughout this century while protecting our planet,” said Sánchez. “We can do it, and it will require a ton of innovation.”

• SEE ALSO : Bob Iger Says He Watches Each Disney Movie 3 to 5 Times During Production

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Jeff Bezos seeks to revamp meat alternatives in climate push

Thursday, 14 Mar 2024

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From plant-based burgers to cultivated meat and protein grown in fermentation tanks, alternative proteins have been singled out as a way to help shift diets away from livestock, a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions. But they have struggled to win over consumers due to a lack of flavour, high prices and concerns over their nutritional content. — AFP

The Bezos Earth Fund is pouring US$60mil (RM281.25mil) into revamping alternative proteins as part of its push to make food more sustainable.

The Jeff Bezos-backed philanthropic organisation will put money into establishing university research centers that will work on improving the taste, texture and nutrition of meat alternatives. The Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein, to be set up over the next five years, will also focus on bringing down manufacturing costs and finding new ingredients, according to Andy Jarvis, director of Future of Food at the Bezos Earth Fund.

“Alternative proteins are an imperative if we are to stay within planetary boundaries, if we are to feed 10 billion people within those boundaries,” Jarvis said in a video interview. “We’re investing in alternative proteins because they need to be successful.”

From plant-based burgers to cultivated meat and protein grown in fermentation tanks, alternative proteins have been singled out as a way to help shift diets away from livestock, a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions. But they have struggled to win over consumers due to a lack of flavour, high prices and concerns over their nutritional content. Investment has been drying up, while the nascent cellular market has been challenged by scale-up issues and government backlash.

“They need to cost less, they need to be more flavourful,” Jarvis said. The fund is backing open access research to create a strong innovation foundation for the whole sector, he said.

The Bezos Earth Fund was launched in early 2020 by Bezos – the world’s second-richest person and founder of Amazon.com Inc – who pledged US$10bil (RM46.89bil) to fight climate change and protect the natural world.

The pledge of US$60mil (RM281.25mil) is initial and part of a US$1bil (RM4.69bil) commitment by the Bezos Earth Fund to tackle food’s impact on climate and nature, the fund’s vice chair Lauren Sánchez said in Miami Tuesday. – Bloomberg

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Bezos-backed fund invests $60 million to improve the taste of alternative meat

The  Bezos Earth Fund  is pouring $60 million into revamping alternative proteins as part of its push to make food more sustainable. 

The Jeff Bezos-backed philanthropic organization will put money into establishing university research centers that will work on improving the taste, texture and nutrition of meat alternatives. The centers, set up over the next five years, will also focus on bringing down manufacturing costs and finding new ingredients, according to  Andy Jarvis , director of Future of Food at the Bezos Earth Fund. 

“Alternative proteins are an imperative if we are to stay within planetary boundaries, if we are to feed 10 billion people within those boundaries,” Jarvis said in a video interview. “We’re investing in alternative proteins because they need to be successful.” 

The funding is part of a $1 billion  commitment  by the Bezos Earth Fund to tackle food’s impact on climate and nature. Alternative proteins have been singled out as a way to help shift diets away from livestock, a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions. But they have struggled to win over consumers due to a lack of flavor, high prices and concerns over nutrition.  

“They need to cost less, they need to be more flavorful,” Jarvis said. 

The Bezos Earth Fund was launched in early 2020 by Bezos — the world’s second-richest person and founder of Amazon .com Inc. — who pledged $10 billion to fight climate change and protect the natural world.

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Victor Mukhin

• Scientific Program

Title : Active carbons as nanoporous materials for solving of environmental problems

However, up to now, the main carriers of catalytic additives have been mineral sorbents: silica gels, alumogels. This is obviously due to the fact that they consist of pure homogeneous components SiO2 and Al2O3, respectively. It is generally known that impurities, especially the ash elements, are catalytic poisons that reduce the effectiveness of the catalyst. Therefore, carbon sorbents with 5-15% by weight of ash elements in their composition are not used in the above mentioned technologies. However, in such an important field as a gas-mask technique, carbon sorbents (active carbons) are carriers of catalytic additives, providing effective protection of a person against any types of potent poisonous substances (PPS). In ESPE “JSC "Neorganika" there has been developed the technology of unique ashless spherical carbon carrier-catalysts by the method of liquid forming of furfural copolymers with subsequent gas-vapor activation, brand PAC. Active carbons PAC have 100% qualitative characteristics of the three main properties of carbon sorbents: strength - 100%, the proportion of sorbing pores in the pore space – 100%, purity - 100% (ash content is close to zero). A particularly outstanding feature of active PAC carbons is their uniquely high mechanical compressive strength of 740 ± 40 MPa, which is 3-7 times larger than that of  such materials as granite, quartzite, electric coal, and is comparable to the value for cast iron - 400-1000 MPa. This allows the PAC to operate under severe conditions in moving and fluidized beds.  Obviously, it is time to actively develop catalysts based on PAC sorbents for oil refining, petrochemicals, gas processing and various technologies of organic synthesis.

Victor M. Mukhin was born in 1946 in the town of Orsk, Russia. In 1970 he graduated the Technological Institute in Leningrad. Victor M. Mukhin was directed to work to the scientific-industrial organization "Neorganika" (Elektrostal, Moscow region) where he is working during 47 years, at present as the head of the laboratory of carbon sorbents.     Victor M. Mukhin defended a Ph. D. thesis and a doctoral thesis at the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia (in 1979 and 1997 accordingly). Professor of Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia. Scientific interests: production, investigation and application of active carbons, technological and ecological carbon-adsorptive processes, environmental protection, production of ecologically clean food.   

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Jeff Bezos' philanthropic fund is pouring $60 million into alternative meats to try to make them taste better

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Jeff Bezos' Earth Fund is allocating $60 million to try to improve alternative meats.

The goal is to make them taste better and reduce the cost of plant-based alternatives.

Fake meats are hailed as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but don't always taste great.

Jeff Bezos' philanthropic fund is allocating $60 million to improving alternative meats by making them taste better and cost less.

Lauren Sánchez , Bezos' fiancée and the vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, announced on Tuesday that the fund is investing the money as part of a $1 billion commitment to transforming the food industry.

The $60 million will go into establishing research centers, which will work to improve quality and nutrition, and reduce the cost of manufacturing fake meat, according to a press release.

"There are also enormous opportunities to enhance the texture and boost flavor through innovation in cell biology and engineering," it said.

In a video interview, Andy Jarvis, director of Future of Food at the fund, told Bloomberg that alternative meat is "imperative if we are to stay within planetary boundaries, if we are to feed 10 billion people within those boundaries."

"They need to cost less, they need to be more flavorful," he added.

The Earth Fund was created in 2020 following a commitment of $10 billion from Bezos, the third-richest man in the world , to fight against the climate crisis and to protect nature.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, increased consumption of meat and dairy alternatives could contribute significantly to curbing climate-harming emissions, particularly in high and middle-income countries.

A July 2022 report from the Boston Consulting Group found that investing in alternative meats has the highest emissions savings per dollar of invested capital of any sector.

And according to the Good Food Institute, there is an appetite for plant-based foods. It said that plant-based meat and seafood hit retail sales of $1.4 billion in the US in 2022.

Despite this, taste and cost remain barriers to consumers trying alternatives.

A third of US consumers say they won't buy plant-based meat because it costs too much , the institute said.

Business Insider's Grace Dean reported last August that Beyond Meat's sales tanked by nearly a third in Q2 of 2023 because financially squeezed consumers were switching to cheaper proteins, or forgoing altogether.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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First refuelling for Russia’s Akademik Lomonosov floating NPP

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The FNPP includes two KLT-40S reactor units. In such reactors, nuclear fuel is not replaced in the same way as in standard NPPs – partial replacement of fuel once every 12-18 months. Instead, once every few years the entire reactor core is replaced with and a full load of fresh fuel.

The KLT-40S reactor cores have a number of advantages compared with standard NPPs. For the first time, a cassette core was used, which made it possible to increase the fuel cycle to 3-3.5 years before refuelling, and also reduce by one and a half times the fuel component in the cost of the electricity produced. The operating experience of the FNPP provided the basis for the design of the new series of nuclear icebreaker reactors (series 22220). Currently, three such icebreakers have been launched.

The Akademik Lomonosov was connected to the power grid in December 2019, and put into commercial operation in May 2020.

Electricity generation from the FNPP at the end of 2023 amounted to 194 GWh. The population of Pevek is just over 4,000 people. However, the plant can potentially provide electricity to a city with a population of up to 100,000. The FNPP solved two problems. Firstly, it replaced the retiring capacities of the Bilibino Nuclear Power Plant, which has been operating since 1974, as well as the Chaunskaya Thermal Power Plant, which is more than 70 years old. It also supplies power to the main mining enterprises located in western Chukotka. In September, a 490 km 110 kilovolt power transmission line was put into operation connecting Pevek and Bilibino.

Image courtesy of TVEL

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