Amazon's total carbon emissions rose 16% in 2025, to 80.85 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent from 69.55 million metric tons in 2024, according to the company's 2025 Sustainability Report, published in July 2026. Carbon intensity, measured as emissions per dollar of revenue, rose 3% to 112.8 grams of CO2 equivalent per dollar. Amazon said intensity remains 38% below its 2019 baseline, a period in which revenue grew 156%.
The report breaks the total into 15.37 million metric tons of Scope 1 direct emissions, 3.74 million metric tons of market-based Scope 2 emissions from purchased electricity and 61.74 million metric tons of other indirect, or Scope 3, emissions.
Data center growth
Amazon said it added more data center capacity in 2025 than any other company globally, to meet customer demand at Amazon Web Services, much of it linked to artificial intelligence. The company reported a global average power usage effectiveness of 1.14 for its data centers, which it said is 9% better than the public cloud industry average and 30% better than on-premises enterprise data centers. A PUE of 1.0 would mean all energy goes to computing, with none used for cooling or other overhead.
Construction of data centers and the manufacture of servers and other hardware add to Scope 3 emissions through steel, concrete, chips and other materials. Amazon said more than two-thirds of its emissions come from its broader supply chain, spanning more than 40 countries and thousands of suppliers.
Clean energy procurement
Amazon said it matched 100% of the electricity consumed by its global operations with renewable energy for the third consecutive year. Its carbon-free energy portfolio spans more than 712 projects across 30 countries, totaling 42 GW of capacity. The company is also investing in next-generation nuclear, advanced geothermal and long-duration storage.
Amazon's relatively low market-based Scope 2 figure reflects this procurement. Under market-based accounting, power purchase agreements and other contracts for renewable energy reduce reported electricity emissions. Location-based figures, which reflect the average emissions of the grids where the company operates, are typically much higher for data center operators, because many grids still rely heavily on gas and coal.
Water
Amazon said its data centers are seven times more water-efficient than the industry average, using air cooling for most of the year, and that it improved water efficiency by 33% in 2025. The company is 75% of the way toward its goal of being water positive by 2030, returning three gallons for every four it used in 2025. It announced more than 50 water projects expected to return more than 5.8 billion gallons a year once complete. Twenty-six of its data centers use reclaimed water for cooling.
Transport and retail
Outside data centers, Amazon reported a 7% reduction in carbon emissions per shipped unit. It operates more than 52,700 electric delivery vans globally and delivered 2.4 billion packages with electric vehicles in 2025, more than halfway to its goal of 100,000 electric delivery vehicles by 2030.
Peer comparison
Amazon's report follows those of Google and Microsoft. Google reported on June 30 that its electricity demand rose 37% in 2025, while operational emissions fell 2% and supply chain emissions rose 25%. Microsoft reported on July 10 that its total emissions rose 25% in fiscal 2025, to 20.29 million metric tons, after data center expansion and its decision to stop using unbundled renewable energy certificates.
Amazon's total footprint is much larger than those of Google or Microsoft because it includes retail, logistics and transport operations as well as cloud computing. Its 16% increase is the largest absolute rise among the three in tonnage terms. Comparing the companies requires care, because each uses different boundaries and accounting choices, including which market instruments it applies to Scope 2 and Scope 3.
Climate goals
Amazon's goal is to reach net zero carbon by 2040, a target set when it co-founded The Climate Pledge in 2019. The company said that when it made the pledge, it anticipated that growth could mean near-term increases in emissions before longer-term reductions. By the end of 2025, The Climate Pledge had 656 signatories across 62 industries and 49 countries.
Amazon said 62% of its top suppliers now have decarbonization plans, up 23% year on year, and that it provides coaching and access to power purchase agreements to help suppliers cut emissions.
Energy market implications
The scale of Amazon's data center expansion makes it one of the largest sources of new electricity demand in the United States and a major buyer of new generation. Its procurement of 42 GW of carbon-free capacity supports wind, solar and storage development, and its interest in nuclear has added momentum to small modular reactor projects. The IEA estimated in April 2026 that global data center electricity use rose 17% in 2025 and that technology companies accounted for about 40% of corporate renewable power purchase agreements signed that year.
At the same time, utilities serving data center regions are adding gas-fired generation to meet growing load, and the absolute rise in hyperscaler emissions reflects the gap between demand growth and the pace of clean power additions. Amazon has said in the report that data centers do not drive up electricity rates, a point that is debated by regulators and consumer advocates in several states, where large-load tariffs are being introduced to allocate infrastructure costs.
Scope 1 emissions
Amazon's Scope 1 emissions of 15.37 million metric tons are large for a technology company because they include fuel burned by its own delivery fleet, aircraft and facilities. Electric vans reduce these emissions over time, while air cargo and heavy trucks remain harder to decarbonize.
Reporting rules
Amazon, like other large companies doing business in California, falls under the state's climate disclosure law, SB 253, which requires reporting of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions in 2026 and Scope 3 from 2027. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is also revising its Scope 2 guidance, which could change how companies account for clean power purchases against round-the-clock data center demand.
What to watch
Key items include Amazon's progress on nuclear and geothermal agreements, its data center construction plans for 2026, any changes to accounting under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol revision and how its emissions trajectory compares with its 2040 net zero goal.