Amazon commits ‘Climate Pledge’

Amazon has announced a series of initiatives to protect the environment. They have pledged to reduce their carbon emissions 10 years ahead of the goals set in the Paris Agreement. Amazon founder and chief executive has announced to carry the flag to protect the environment.

Jeff Bezos says “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.” This announcement comes in wake of Amazon employees and other tech industry workers called for a walkout on Friday for the lack of efforts shown towards climate change.

Amazon initiative includes an order of 100,000 delivery vehicles from Rivian. Amazon expects 10,000 new electric vehicles to hit the road by 2022 and 100,000 by 2030. The company says that with this move, 4 million metric ton carbon emission will reduce by 2030. Another initiative includes investing $100 million to deforestation projects.

Amazon has also plans to fully adopt renewable energy by 2030. According to the company, they have already initiated 15 utility-scale wind and solar renewable energy projects. These projects will deliver 1.3 gigawatts of renewable capacity. All of the efforts will be monitored by a new sustainability reporting initiative.

Amazon is advocating other companies to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy and the reduction of carbon emissions. Bezos, himself is in talks with many corporate leaders to take part in the climate pledge. He said, “I’ve been talking with other CEOs of global companies, and I’m finding a lot of interest in joining the pledge. Large companies signing The Climate Pledge will send an important signal to the market that it’s time to invest in the products and services the signatories will need to meet their commitments.”