An Amazon Web Services data center in Manassas, Va., on July 9. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg)
Amazon.com Inc.’s carbon emissions rose for the first time in three years in 2024, driven by data center construction and fuel consumption by its delivery providers.
The world’s largest online retailer emitted 68.25 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent last year, up 6% from the prior year, Amazon said in its annual sustainability report, which was published July 16. The company’s emissions last year were up by a third since Amazon pledged in 2019 to eliminate them by 2040.
The company and its high-tech rivals are spending heavily on data centers to power artificial intelligence applications, which require plenty of concrete and steel, two materials that use a lot of energy to produce.
LOOK BACK: Amazon Says Its Carbon Emissions Fell in 2023
Environmental watchdogs have raised the alarm as the AI data center boom helped supercharge electricity demand, and, in some areas, breathed new life into natural gas and coal-fired power. Those energy sources had fallen out of favor among tech companies in recent years as they pledged to find cleaner sources and zero out their impact on carbon emissions.
Amazon and fellow data-center giants Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms and Microsoft Corp. have also signed deals to scoop up carbon-free nuclear power in the coming years.
Amazon’s emissions from purchased electricity rose 1% last year, the first increase since the company began reporting the figure in 2019, “in part due to the higher electricity usage required to support advanced technologies.”
STORY ON 2022: Amazon Says Its Carbon Emissions Fell for First Time
“This underscores why it’s important to scale carbon-free energy sources to continue to deliver the advanced technologies our customers need,” Amazon said in the report.
Amazon.com Inc. ranks No. 1 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America, No. 12 on the TT Top 100 list of the largest private carriers and No. 1 on the Top 50 global freight list.
