James Murdoch has always seemed an odd fit in the News Corp media empire: the ecologically minded scion of a family whose centrepiece news outlets have minimised the effects of climate change.

He championed sustainability projects at Sky and helped engineer a venture that poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the National Geographic Society's endowment. And just a few weeks ago, he and his wife criticised his family's media companies for their climate coverage as bushfires raged in Australia.

Now that his family has sold the bulk of its empire to The Walt Disney Co. and he has largely broken away from what remains, Murdoch is making the environment a top focus of his new career as an investor.

Having broken ranks with his family over climate change, James Murdoch is stepping up investments in green startups. Credit:Bloomberg

Murdoch, who personally netted about $US2 billion ($3 billion) from the sale, plans to announce three climate-focused investments on Wednesday. Two are in startups developing non-plastic containers: Cove, which makes a biodegradable water bottle, and Notpla, which helped produce a ballyhooed dissolvable Scotch whisky pod. The third involves a climate-focused partnership that includes the French and German governments and is overseen by BlackRock, the $US7 trillion money-management giant.