Amazon finally reacts to the climate emergency: too little, too late?
By: Enrique Dans
Tags: Renewable Energy, Csr, Climate Emergency, Climate Change, Amazon

IMAGE: Amazon

In a bid to improve a reputation tarnished by criticism of its environmental footprint, Amazon has announced The Climate Pledge, a commitment to help tackle the climate emergency as stated in the objectives of the Paris Accords but ten years early, and saying it will be using 100% renewable energy by 2030 and that it will be carbon neutral by 2040.

In February, the Company announced a $700 million investment in Rivian, an electric vehicle maker that has been has attracted relatively little attention since it began operations in 2009 and that has yet to rack up any major sales. As a result of the investment, Rivian will supposedly produce an electric delivery truck, and Amazon says it will buy 100,000 units, which it will deploy between 2021 and 2024 as part of its commitment toward zero emissions logistics.

For a Company the size of Amazon, committing to fight the climate emergency is a major event and the company has been preparing its plans over the last three years, during which time it has carried out analysis and research that has included creating models to evaluate the contribution to its carbon footprint of all its products and services, hoping to show leadership, albeit on its own terms, rather than responding to mounting media pressure. The company has avoided making any announcement until it had carried out extensive analytics and quantitative analysis and having put in motion its monitorization systems of all its objectives, as it has seen fit.

The problem with having set its own timetable in this way is evident: the company has kept silent over recent months, giving the impression that it was not concerned about the climate emergency and publicly ignoring demands from more than 8,000 employees at its annual general shareholders meeting earlier this year. If the company has been working for almost three years on this response, one can only wonder at the wisdom of keeping silent in this way and the damage it has done to its image. Jeff Bezos was clear on the matter:

“We’re done being in the middle of the herd on this issue — we’ve decided to use our size and scale to make a difference. If a company with as much physical infrastructure as Amazon — which delivers more than 10 billion items a year — can meet the Paris Agreement 10 years early, then any company can”

The comment makes clear what the company has been doing in recent years: nothing more visible than greenwashing. This approach obliges it to take decisive and realistic measures going forward, while at the same time, taking initiatives that show leadership, that make other companies follow. This is positive, but something that the company so far has largely failed to capitalize on and that has impacted negatively on its image.

Now, commitments such as buying 100,000 vehicles or investing $100 million in reforestation, which are ambitious and are the result of three years’ work, now seem little more than cosmetic, given the company’s size and influence, and more like a public relations exercise than generating real change.

At the same time, the problem with setting objectives in relation to the Paris Accords is that it makes the announcement seem very conservative: we all know that the Paris Accords are too little and way below what we need to do if we’re to avoid reaching a point of no return. Amazon employees taking part in yesterday’s strikes and demonstrations are continuing to call for more radical measures, and have gone ahead with their demonstrations rather than celebrating the announcement. Now, after such a long period of doing nothing and not seeming to care, Amazon’s announcement has not been greeted with much enthusiasm, and instead by calls for it to do more.

That said, Amazon’s decision to take the lead in this regard and to make the announcement in Washington is good news, and if it pressures other companies to follow its lead, so much the better. But at this moment, with the Paris Accords consigned to the past thanks to the efforts of people like Donald Trump, what we need now are not commitments, but activism at the highest level and more decisive action. The climate emergency has changed everything, and things are now moving much more quickly, including communication. The next time Amazon or any other company decides to do something, it would be better if they were to forget about following their own agenda and instead adjust to society’s timetable.