Why Billionaire Climate Philanthropists Will Always Be Part of the Problem 

Also, to add:

There was an unprecedented transfer of wealth to billionaires in 2020: their already-huge fortunes grew to a link of $10.2 trillion. Some of them have decided to "donate" a small percentage of these gains.

These two phenomena – increasing social inequality alongside the increasing social role of “charitable” handouts from the super-rich – are closely intertwined. Without extreme levels of social inequality, and vast fortunes piling up in the coffers of the tiny few while tens of millions sink into poverty, it wouldn't be necessary to rely on the largesse of the billionaires to “donate” the funds back to society that are necessary to meet critical social needs.

Let's take Jeff Bezos. He's pledged to donate $10 billion to the "Bezos Earth Fund". Sounds like a lot... until you realise that it pales in comparison to the wealth which he accumulated in the last year alone: link.

It's a trend reflected among the other American oligarchs. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is now worth $12.7 billion, a massive jump from his wealth of $2.6 billion in April. He pledged $1 billion for COVID-19 relief, or about 10 percent of his earnings last year. Bill Gates donated $350 million to COVID-19 relief, yet saw his wealth balloon from $98 billion in April to $120.1 billion at present. Meanwhile, the pandemic dealt a massive blow to the vast majority of humanity: according to the non-profit Save the Children, 5.25 billion people are substantially poorer now than they were in January last year. The UN World Food Program has found that an additional 130 million people could be pushed to the brink of starvation.

The charitable activities of the oligarchs have to be understood in this context. From March to June 2020, 209 billionaires gave away $7.2 billion in funds and equipment for COVID-19 assistance, with PWC researchers link “this is the greatest amount billionaires have given in a short space of time ever, even after allowing for inflation.” But this is barely one percent of the more than $600 billion which US billionaires alone gained between May and June of that year. These billionaires have gained over $1 trillion over the course of 2020.

So basically, billionaires are "donating" a small fraction of the money they gained from the pandemic. Sources of this money include:
- The fact that the pandemic has accelerated the process of monopolisation and concentration of wealth.
- Trillion-dollar bailouts like the CARES Act , which places vast financial resources at the disposal of the ultra-rich .
- Capitalists refusing to halt non-essential production, sacrificing workers’ health and lives in the pursuit of profits and accelerating the spread of disease.

It is from this sort of immoral shit that billionaires have accumulated the fortunes from which they now dispense their "moral" donations.

Also worth noting that in many cases, what are presented as philanthropic organisations function as little more than vehicles to promote the interests of their ultra-rich donors. In any case, they will never challenge their interests. Bezos's foundation calls for "market-based" solutions to climate change and will fund lobbyists to promote market reforms.

Tl;dr In order to combat climate change, fight infectious disease and cure other societal ills, we cannot rely on the scraps donated by the ultra-rich, to be used as the ultra-rich dictate according to their own individual whims and interests. Particularly when this money was obtained by contributing to these problems in the first place, and will not be used to challenge such problems on any fundamental level.