The world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, will commit $US10 billion ($A15 billion) of his own fortune to help fight climate change.

Mr Bezos, the founder of Amazon, announced in an Instagram post that he’ll start giving grants to scientists, activists and non-profit organisations working to protect Earth.

“I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change,” Mr Bezos wrote on Monday.

Amazon has an enormous carbon footprint. Last year, officials of the company said Amazon would work to have 100 per cent of its energy use come from solar panels and other renewable energy by 2030.

The online retailer relies on fossil fuels to power planes, trucks and vans in order to ship billions of items all around the world.

The announcement marks a significant turnaround for a company that has previously been accused of threatening to fire employees who spoke out on the issue.

Amazon workers in its Seattle headquarters have been vocal in criticising some of the company’s practices, pushing it to do more to combat climate change.

Mr Bezos said in the post that he will call his new initiative the Bezos Earth Fund.

An Amazon spokesman confirmed that Mr Bezos will be using his own money for the fund.

Mr Bezos, who founded Amazon 25 years ago, has a stake in the company that is worth more than $US100 billion ($A149 billion).

Despite being among the richest people in the world, Mr Bezos only recently became active in donating money to causes as other billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have done.

In 2018, Mr Bezos started another fund, committing $US2 billion ($A3 billion) of his own money to open pre-schools in low-income neighbourhoods and give money to non-profit organisations that help homeless families.

-with AAP