Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has unveiled a sweeping climate-change plan that commits the online retailer to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement ten years early.
Bezos made the remarks Thursday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., where the billionaire and richest man in the world announced Amazon’s Climate Pledge, which involves satisfying the Paris climate accord’s goal of carbon neutrality in 2040.
Bezos said he expects Amazon to transition to zero emissions by 2030. He also pledged that Amazon will add 100,000 electric delivery vehicles to its fleet by 2024.
Amazon said the vehicles will be made by Rivian, in which the company said it has invested $440 million.
At the event, Bezos said he expects 80 percent of Amazon’s energy use to come from renewable sources by 2024, up from a current rate of 40 percent.
Amazon is encouraging other companies to sign its Climate Pledge.
“We’re done being in the middle of the herd on this issue — we’ve decided to use our size and scale to make a difference,” Bezos said on Thursday.
“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.”
Bezos is facing pressure from inside Amazon, where employees are agitating for the company to adopt a more activist stance on the environment.
Breitbart News reported last week that more than 1,000 Amazon employees have committed to joining a climate-change walkout set for Sept. 20.
Read more at Breitbart
Slam dunk for Bezos…as there is nothing going ‘wrong’ with the planet whatever he does will work (as there is nothing to fix) – win-win for him…
This article is very typical of how the media distorts the news. In saying that a thousand Amazon employees plan to join the strike, it implies that the company’s employees in general support the climate change cause. However, Amazon has 647,500 employees as of 2018. The number expected to support the strike represents 0.015%.
Amazon is in the same situation as many nations were over ten years ago. Nations like Germany have found that there is a huge difference between setting emission goals for climate change, and actually making them happen, not to mention the cost.