Amazon pledges to meet Paris Agreement 10 years early

Amazon has ordered 100,000 new electric vehicles (EVs) as part of The Climate Pledge, a commitment which calls on signatories to be net zero carbon by 2040 – a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement. Companies signing the pledge agree to measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis, implement decarbonisation strategies in line with the Paris Agreement and neutralise remaining emissions with additional offsets to achieve net zero annual carbon emissions. Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos says: “
September 26, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

Amazon has ordered 100,000 new electric vehicles (EVs) as part of The Climate Pledge, a commitment which calls on signatories to be net zero carbon by 2040 – a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement.

Companies signing the pledge agree to measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis, implement decarbonisation strategies in line with the Paris Agreement and neutralise remaining emissions with additional offsets to achieve net zero annual carbon emissions.

Amazon’s founder 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.”

The new EVs are from Michigan-based producer Rivian and the first ones will start to deliver packages to customers in 2021. The company plans to have 10,000 EVs on the road by 2022 and the whole fleet on the road by 2030. This order follows Amazon’s initial $440 million investment in Rivian to accelerate the production of EVs.

The Climate Pledge stems from an agreement with Global Optimism, a group focused on environmental stewardship.

Christina Figueres, founding partner of Global Optimism, says: “If Amazon can set ambitious goals like this and make significant changes at their scale, we think many more companies should be able to do the same and will accept the challenge.”

Related Content

  • Bringing enforcement standards into line
    March 1, 2013
    Difficulties with the apparent accuracy of enforcement systems have been making the headlines in the United States over recent months. Jon Masters investigates the causes and possible cures. Online newspaper reports in the United States over recent months have painted a picture of the authorities struggling to keep on top of their speed and red light enforcement pro­grammes. Among a host of stories put out by the Washington Post and others on the subject of speed cameras during January, there were reports
    Read More
  • Report highlights community impact of new mobility options
    March 29, 2018
    Local authorities and communities must understand the impacts of the new mobility options and regulate to get the transport systems they want, according to a new report. Colin Sowman takes a look. Outside of the big cities plagued with congestion, the existing transportation system(s) often cope adequately, and the ongoing workload (maintenance, safety…) is more than enough to keep local transport authorities busy. Is it, therefore, a good use of public service employees’ time to keep abreast of the raft
    Read More
  • Report highlights community impact of new mobility options
    March 29, 2018
    Local authorities and communities must understand the impacts of the new mobility options and regulate to get the transport systems they want, according to a new report. Colin Sowman takes a look. Outside of the big cities plagued with congestion, the existing transportation system(s) often cope adequately, and the ongoing workload (maintenance, safety…) is more than enough to keep local transport authorities busy. Is it, therefore, a good use of public service employees’ time to keep abreast of the raft
    Read More
  • Future EV owners can make money from the power grid
    May 17, 2012
    In what is being claimed as a landmark research report published by Ricardo and National Grid in the UK, the market potential is demonstrated for an electric plug-in vehicle fleet of the future to provide balancing services to the power grid on a commercial basis, returning value to vehicle owners while improving the carbon efficiency of grid operation.
    Read More

Highlighted Content