Jeff Bezos is ready to give away most of his $124 billion fortune in his lifetime. The Amazon founder announced this in an interview with CNN, explaining that the money would be used to fight climate change and support people who can unite humanity in the face of social and political divisions.

Bezos' statement seemed impromptu: a CNN journalist simply asked a question about the possibility of such a move, and Bezos answered in the affirmative. Skeptics immediately discovered that Bezos had not yet signed the Giving Pledge, a pledge by hundreds of the world's richest people to donate most of their wealth to charity. The billionaire only clarified that he is now building capacity to be able to give that money away.

As CNN noted, despite the fact that Bezos is the fourth richest man in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he has so far refrained from setting a target amount for donations during his lifetime.

Bezos has managed to invest $10 billion, or about 8 percent of his fortune, in the Bezos Earth Foundation, which is co-chaired by his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez. Among the Foundation's priorities are reducing the carbon footprint; pushing financial regulators to consider climate-related risks; promoting mapping technology to monitor carbon emissions; and creating natural plant-based carbon sinks.