Amazon Says Net Zero Pledge Unchanged by Trump Policies

Amazon expands its electric delivery fleet with more vans and bikes for 2040 net-zero goals.
The company has not backed down from its climate pledge, according to a senior executive, despite the leadership change in the U.S.
Critics say its emissions are on the rise in spite of efforts to reduce them.

Amazon's leadership has recently reaffirmed that its 2040 net-zero goal will not go astray amid the new political atmosphere in the country under Trump’s administration.

Donald Trump has been very outspoken against net-zero policies since the start of his political career. He has said that they hurt national security and increase energy costs and has been quite solid about his stance, even terming climate change a 'hoax'.

Nevertheless, the world's largest retailer sticks to its net-zero commitments and continues to support climate goals despite these developments in the U.S.

The company's boss, Jeff Bezos, announced its net-zero carbon emissions goals for the first time in 2019 through The Climate Pledge. This pledge aims to cut emissions across all global operations ten years ahead of the target set by the Paris Agreement. More than 400 companies followed suit ever since then.

Recently, at an event in Germany, the company leadership, represented by Andreas Marschne, Amazon Vice President for Global Engineering Services and Worldwide Operations Sustainability, reaffirmed this target.

When asked about the net-zero pledge, he said, "The company's climate goals are firm, unchanged, and backed by customer expectations. Even though progress is being made, there are hurdles along the way, particularly in long-distance freight, for example, shipping."

Amazon, in its latest sustainability report, said that its carbon emissions dropped from 70.74 million metric tonnes of CO₂ equivalent in 2022 to 68.82 million in 2023. To rein in transport-related emissions, the company co-founded the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA) for cleaner shipping solutions.

At the event, it announced major investments in electric vehicles in Europe. It inked a deal with Mercedes-Benz to buy over 200 eActros 600 trucks—its largest-ever order of electric heavy trucks—with about 150 of them expected to hit UK roads.

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Charging stations will be readied to support these trucks, with fast chargers powering the vehicles in just over an hour to match driver breaks. Amazon is also expanding its delivery fleet with more electric vans and bikes in European cities.

When it comes to packaging, it is set to adopt a new packing technology that builds boxes based on each item's size and shape. This will reduce packing waste and allow more parcels to fit into each vehicle, increasing delivery efficiency.

Despite all these announcements by Amazon through its senior sustainability executive at the event, some quarters say that its emissions are on the rise—claims the company responded to as inaccurate and based on incorrect data and assumptions.

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Source: The Yorkshire Post