Amazon pledges to reduce its climate footprint

Apparent change of heart welcomed by campaigners

Amazon has announced a string of measures designed to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases.

The retail and cloud giant has committed to using only energy derived from renewable sources by 2030, with a gaol of 80 per cent renewables by 2024, and to be carbon neutral by 2040, a decade before the Paris Accord target for net zero emissions.

In addition, Amazon says it will invest $100 million in restoring and protect forests, wetlands and peatlands in partnership with environmental charity The Nature Conservancy, and it has set up a website to report on its progress in climate change mitigation.

In a third initiative, Amazon said it has ordered 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from Rivian, with plans to start delivering packages with the EVs in 2021, and has pledged to make 50 per cent of deliveries carbon neutral in terms of emissions by 2030.

The announcement coincides with a global climate strike today, a walkout to which thousands of Amazon employees have signed up, with demonstrations calling for action against climate change taking place in many towns and cities around the world.

The move may be in part a response to the poor publicity generated after Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos refused in May to meet shareholders and employees who were calling for, among other things, an end to the use of coal to power the company's data centres, measures to reduce the petrol used in package deliveries, and a transparent audit of its environmental impact.

Amazon has often been accused of ‘greenwashing' its activities, making PR hay with its minimal investments in renewable energy while remaining firmly wedded to ‘business as usual'. It has also funded denialist lobby groups opposed to action on reducing the use of fossil fuels. The company was criticised recently for reintroducing single-use plastics in some of its packaging.

"We're done being in the middle of the herd on this issue—we've decided to use our size and scale to make a difference," said Bezos in a statement. "If a company with as much physical infrastructure as Amazon—which delivers more than 10 billion items a year—can meet the Paris Agreement 10 years early, then any company can."

The announced measures are modest for a company of Amazon's size, but they were welcomed by Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, who is working with Amazon on a venture called Global Optimism.

"Bold steps by big companies will make a huge difference in the development of new technologies and industries to support a low carbon economy," she said. "With this step, Amazon also helps many other companies to accelerate their own decarbonisation.

The apparent change of direction also received a cautious welcome from internal group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice. "We're thrilled at what workers have achieved in under a year. But we know it's not enough. The Paris Agreement, by itself, won't get us to a livable world," the group said.