Amazon's carbon emissions increased 19% in 2020, despite the Covid-19 pandemic causing a decline in world emissions levels.
According to Amazon's annual sustainability report, its activities in 2020 emitted the equivalent of 60.64 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. This is an increase from 2019 when it reported 51.17 million metric tons - a 15% increase year on year.
The report is Amazon's third annual sustainability report, and it evaluates progress toward the company's 2019 Climate Pledge to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. Amazon wants to power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025 and to make half of its shipments net-zero carbon by 2030, with 100,000 custom electric vehicles by 2030.
According to the report, Amazon increased its use of renewable energy throughout its operations from 42% in 2019 to 65% last year - making it the world's largest buyer of renewable energy.
Last year saw a pandemic-fueled increase in demand for Amazon's services such as delivery and Prime Video and more companies used Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud arm. The company, which employs more than 1 million people worldwide, reported a record revenue of $386 billion in 2020.
However, while overall emissions increased in tandem with revenue, Amazon said its efforts and changes in consumer behavior during the pandemic mitigated the overall effect on emissions - resulting in a reduction in carbon intensity. Carbon intensity is a metric that calculates total carbon emissions in grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per dollar of gross merchandise sales.
According to this, overall carbon intensity has reduced by 16% since 2019, from around 123 grams per dollar of sales to 103. This is an increase from a 5% reduction in 2019.
The company claimed this reduction was "in line" with targets it was creating through the Science Based Targets Initiative, a nonprofit organization that works with companies to reduce emissions.
Amazon has committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2040 as part of its Climate Pledge. The company announced in June it planned to run on clean energy only by 2025 - five years earlier than previously stated.
