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Amazon emissions rose 16% in 2025
Data center construction and delivery fuel helped push total emissions to about 81 million metric tons
Key Takeaways:
- Amazon.com Inc. emitted about 81 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2025.
- The company said emissions rose 16% from 2024 and 58% from 2019.
- Data center construction, purchased electricity, delivery fuel and more package deliveries contributed to the increase.
Amazon.com Inc.’s carbon emissions rose for a second consecutive year in 2025, driven by data center construction and fuel consumed by its delivery operation.
The cloud computing and e-commerce giant emitted about 81 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent last year, a 16% increase from 2024, Amazon said in its annual sustainability report, which was published Wednesday. Amazon’s emissions last year were up 58% from 2019, when the company pledged to eliminate them by 2040.
Years after pledging to zero out their carbon emissions, Amazon and other tech companies have joined a boom in data center construction that has undermined those efforts.
Server farms require lots of concrete and steel, both of which require abundant energy to produce. The facilities also consume large amounts of power, fueling a wave of investment in fossil fuel infrastructure in the US, including natural gas power plants. Amazon said its emissions from purchased electricity rose 34% last year.
The company’s e-commerce business also increased emissions because it delivered more packages.
“While the speed and scale of AI adoption is unique — and the change is happening faster and more broadly than anything else we’ve encountered in our lifetimes — the need to stay stubborn on our vision and flexible on the details is familiar territory,” chief sustainability officer Kara Hurst 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. 15 on the TT Top 100 list of the largest private carriers and No. 1 on the TT Top 50 global freight list.
