Amazon Pledges Over Rs 15,000 Crore For Clean Energy, Reducing Climate Change

Amazon has pledged to invest in technologies that will support sustainable development, thus preventing climate change on planet Earth.

For this, the e-commerce giant launched a $2 billion (~Rs 15,130 crore) venture investment program under The Climate Pledge - Amazon's commitment to reach net zero carbon by 2040.

Reuters

If the company achieves the above stated goal, it would be doing so a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement. Amazon¡¯s efforts towards reaching the climate change and clean energy goals were revealed on Tuesday in an annual update.

The Climate Pledge Fund, a $2 billion venture capital fund, is Amazon and Jeff Bezos' latest investment towards the future. The company will invest this fund in ¡°visionary companies whose product and service solutions will facilitate the transition to a low carbon economy¡± it said in the annual update.

Amazon's recyclable mailer (Image: Amazon)

In addition, Amazon¡¯s ¡®The Climate Pledge¡¯ launched in 2019 has now been joined by Verizon, Reckitt Benckiser (RB), and Infosys. Together, the conglomerate will further accelerate such investments towards a low-carbon economy.

Amazon climate change commitment

Amazon had earlier set a target of 2030 to run all its operations on 100% renewable energy. In this year¡¯s update, the company confirmed that it will do so by 2025, five years earlier than previously planned.

As of today, Amazon claims to have ¡°91 renewable energy projects, including 31 utility-scale wind and solar projects and 60 solar rooftops on fulfillment centers and sort centers around the globe.¡±

(Image: Amazon/ Jordan Stead)

These projects together comprise 2,900 MW plus of capacity. As per Amazon this would be enough to power 680,000 homes in the U.S. The company promises to continue such investments, including the deployment of 100,000 electric vehicles sourced from Rivian. Amazon says that the vehicles will be out delivering products in 2021.

Amazon clean energy pledge

Amazon also launched the $100 million Right Now Climate Fund in September last year. Through the fund, the company is investing in ¡°nature-based solutions and reforestation projects around the world.¡± The latest examples of this were its investments in the U.S and Germany.

Since 2015, Amazon claims to have lowered the weight of outbound packaging by 33%. By doing so, it has eliminated more than ¡°880,000 tons of packaging material, the equivalent of 1.5 billion shipping boxes.¡±

Such investment strategies are becoming increasingly popular among industry leaders, governments and even religious bodies. On the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis¡¯ encyclical ¡°Laudato Si¡± (Praised Be), the Vatican urged Catholics not to invest in weapon and fossil fuel industries and closely monitor their investments in companies prone to damaging the environment.