- Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced a new climate pledge in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
- As part of the pledge, Amazon said it will meet the sustainability goals of the United Nations Paris Agreement 10 years early, and by 2040, the company will be carbon neutral.
- Amazon is the first company to sign the pledge, created in partnership with Global Optimism, a company founded by Christiana Figueres, the former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
- Amazon has previously pledged to make half of its shipments carbon neutral by 2030 and to reveal its carbon footprint before 2020, according to Bloomberg.
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Jeff Bezos on Thursday committed to an ambitious pledge to combat climate change.
As part of the the climate pledge, Amazon will meet the sustainability goals of the United Nations Paris Agreement 10 years early. That means Amazon will measure and report the company’s emissions on a regular basis and work toward eliminating its carbon use altogether, according to CNBC.
Amazon pledged that it will be carbon neutral by 2040.
Amazon is the first company to sign the pledge. The Climate Pledge was created in partnership with Global Optimism, a company founded by Christiana Figueres, the former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Amazon's announcement came one day ahead of a global climate strike; 1,500 Amazon employees are expected to walk out as part of the strike on Friday.
Amazon has previously pledged to make half of its shipments carbon neutral by 2030 and to reveal its carbon footprint to before 2020, according to Bloomberg.
Here's a breakdown of what the pledge entails.
Net zero carbon for 50% of Amazon's shipments by 2030, and 100% across the company by 2040.
Renewable energy for 80% of Amazon's operations by 2024, and 100% by 2030.
Amazon put a more specific timeline on its pledge, made two years ago, to reach 100% renewable energy used to power its business operations. It expects to hit 40% before 2020.
Amazon says steps it has taken towards achieving this goal so far include:
- 15 wind and solar projects that will annually generate enough renewable and clean energy, equivalent to the energy needed to power 368,000 homes in the US.
- 50 solar rooftops installed on fulfilled and sort centers globally.
10,000 electric delivery vehicles on the road as early as 2022, and 100,000 operating by 2030.
Bezos announced that Amazon has placed an order for 100,000 electric delivery vehicles.
Dave Clark, Amazon's senior vice president of operations, tweeted out a photo of the vans on Thursday, saying that they'll hit the road by 2021.
Amazon says it will have the full 100,000 vehicles operating by 2030, and about 10,000 operating as early as 2022. Amazon says 4 million metric tons of carbon will be saved annually by 2030 by switching over to these electric vans.
A $100 million investment in the newly launched Right Now Climate Fund.
Amazon and the Nature Conservancy are setting up the Right Now Climate Fund, which will protect and restore forests and wetlands globally. Amazon has pledged to give $100 million to the fund, which has the goal of removing millions of metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere.
In an effort to increase transparency, Amazon has launched a website to report on its sustainability efforts.
According to its press release, Amazon will measure and report its greenhouse gas emissions. You can check out the website here.