Amazon mentioned its carbon emissions surged 19 % final yr at the same time as international air pollution declined and the corporate publicly pledged to go inexperienced.
The Seattle-based e-tailing large — whose enterprise exploded final yr on surging demand for home-delivered items from locked-down customers — mentioned it spewed out 60.64 metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2020. That made Amazon a much bigger polluter than whole international locations like Eire, Portugal and Singapore, in response to European Union information.
Amazon’s 2020 emissions signify a dramatic improve from the 51.17 million metric tons of carbon the corporate launched in 2019 and 44.40 metric tons it expelled 2018, in response to the corporate’s sustainability report launched Wednesday.
Whereas Amazon’s carbon footprint expanded, general international emissions fell by a shocking 7 % in 2020 — the biggest drop in historical past.
The discharge of Amazon’s report comes amid a warmth wave within the US and Canada that has killed greater than 100 folks and damaged all-time temperature data within the firm’s hometown of Seattle.
Amazon has pledged to turn into carbon impartial by 2040 and energy all of its enterprise actions by renewable vitality by 2025. As a part of that push, the corporate is shopping for up vitality capability from photo voltaic and wind vegetation around the globe.
Whereas Wednesday’s report exhibits that Amazon nonetheless has a protracted solution to go earlier than reaching its local weather objectives, the corporate insists it’s transferring in the precise route.
As proof that Amazon is turning into extra vitality environment friendly because it expands, the agency pointed the truth that a metric referred to as “carbon depth” — which tracks carbon emissions per greenback of gross sales — declined by 16 % from 2019 to 2020.
“Investing in inexperienced applied sciences is the precise factor to do for the planet and residents —in addition to for the long-term success of companies of all sizes throughout all industries in every single place,” founder Jeff Bezos, who’s making ready to step down as CEO and blast into house, mentioned in June.
