Amazon's Emissions Rose 6% in 2024 to 68.25 Million Tons as Data Center Construction Picked Up
Amazon's 2024 Sustainability Report, published in mid-July, shows the company's total carbon emissions rose 6% in 2024 to 68.25 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, up from 64.38 million metric tons in 2023. It is the first annual increase since 2021, when the company's emissions rose during the pandemic-era expansion of its logistics network. Bloomberg and Fast Company reported that the increase was driven mainly by the construction of data centers and by fuel use among third-party delivery providers.
Amazon says its carbon intensity, measured as emissions per dollar of gross merchandise sales, fell 4% in 2024, while its business grew 11%. Amazon's footprint has a different shape from those of Microsoft and Google because of its retail and logistics operations. Amazon has been the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in the world for several years by contracted volume, according to BloombergNEF rankings that the company cites. Matching is calculated on an annual basis, meaning total renewable energy purchased over the year equals total electricity consumed.
In 2024 Amazon signed agreements related to nuclear power, including an investment in X-energy, a developer of small modular reactors, and agreements with utilities including Dominion Energy in Virginia and Energy Northwest in Washington state to explore new reactors. Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge in 2019, committing to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. The company has invested in electric delivery vehicles, including a large order of vans from Rivian, and in lower-carbon materials for construction.
Amazon's report follows those of Microsoft and Google, which also showed rising emissions linked to data center expansion. The comparison is imperfect because the companies use different baselines, boundaries and accounting methods. For electricity markets, Amazon's report confirms the trend of rising data center load. For renewable energy developers, large corporate buyers like Amazon remain an important source of long-term contracts. The second driver named in coverage of the report, fuel used by third-party delivery providers, is a reminder that Amazon's footprint is tied to oil as well as electricity.