Amazon’s latest sustainability report is instructive: in just one year, the company’s CO2 emissions have increased by 19%. This is the second year in a row that this figure is higher, with 40% more than in 2019. Meanwhile, the firm is trying to put on a good face by evoking its carbon neutrality objectives.
While Amazon is already facing multiple controversies concerning the working conditions of its employees, the firm has just published a new report detailing its CO2 emissions. The result is appalling: with 71.54 million tons of carbon dioxide emitted in 2021, this figure has increased by 18% compared to the previous year. By comparison, Amazon pollutes the atmosphere as much as 180 gas-fired power plants. Worse still, this is the second year in a row that Amazon has significantly worsened the situation.
Compared to 2019, the year of its first public report on the matter, its greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 40%. However, the e-commerce giant is trying to put on a good face despite these appalling results, claiming that “The focus should not just be on a company’s carbon footprint in terms of absolute carbon emissions, but also on whether it is reducing its carbon intensity”.
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Amazon dramatically increases its CO2 emissions year on year
Indeed, Amazon reports that its carbon intensity, i.e. its emissions generated for each dollar collected, has down 1.9% in 2021. Only here, this figure can quickly prove to be misleading in view of the phenomenal growth displayed by the company. In other words, it in no way catches up with the increase in CO2 emissions. Amazon then plays the card of carbon neutralityannounced by Jeff Bezos in 2019 as a goal for 2040.
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But, there again, this argument is only a facade. Planting trees or even promoting renewable energies does not generally allow, at present, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. “We have grown our business at an unprecedented rate to meet the needs of our customers during the pandemic”Amazon justifies itself in its report.
Note that the firm does not include all the CO2 sources of its activities in the document, as the emissions generated by the manufacture of its products, or the real impact of its factories and its delivery activities.
