Carbon footprint rises sharply
Amazon’s carbon dioxide emissions increased sharply in 2025 as the company accelerated its artificial intelligence strategy and expanded the infrastructure needed to support it.
The Seattle-based company reported nearly 81 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions last year, a 16% increase from 2024, according to its sustainability report released Wednesday.
AI infrastructure drives the increase
The rise was largely tied to indirect emissions from sources connected to Amazon’s expanding data center footprint.
Its AI investment push requires large amounts of construction materials, including steel, which added to the company’s overall emissions profile.
Climate Pledge target remains distant
Amazon is still 15 years away from its 2040 goal of becoming carbon neutral.
Since announcing its Climate Pledge in 2019, the company’s emissions have risen by roughly 58%.
Amazon said it remains committed to the 2040 carbon neutrality target and to its self-imposed 2030 goal of becoming water positive.
E-commerce growth also adds pressure
Amazon’s core e-commerce business also contributed to the increase.
Direct emissions from its own operations rose 2% in 2025 as the company delivered more packages than ever.
Amazon said it is working to reduce the carbon footprint of its logistics network through electric vehicles and lower-carbon fuels.
Emissions per shipment improve
Although total emissions increased, Amazon said emissions per shipped product continued to fall.
That means the company is becoming more efficient on a per-package basis, even as the scale of its operations pushes total emissions higher.
Carbon intensity reverses decline
Amazon has previously highlighted carbon intensity, which measures carbon dioxide emissions per dollar of revenue, as evidence of improvement.
That metric rose 3% in 2025 after several years of decline.
Since 2019, however, Amazon said carbon intensity has fallen by 38% overall.
Amazon says AI has changed the equation
The company acknowledged that artificial intelligence has reshaped the technology sector and complicated sustainability planning since the Climate Pledge was launched.
“We’ve encountered tremendous change in each of the seven years since. Perhaps none bigger than AI,” Kara Hurst, Amazon’s chief sustainability officer, wrote in the report.
She said AI is “both transforming what’s possible — accelerating discovery, optimizing systems and unlocking solutions that weren’t within reach before — yet also creating new demands for energy, water and infrastructure.”
Electricity emissions climb
Amazon’s emissions from purchased electricity increased 34% last year.
The rise was driven by data center growth and the electrification of the company’s delivery network.
Amazon also emphasized that its data centers use water seven times more efficiently than the industry average.
Company remains optimistic
Hurst framed AI as both a challenge and a potential tool for speeding up climate solutions.
“I remain confident and optimistic in the overarching vision and the long-term progress we continue to make toward it,” she wrote.
Employees criticize AI climate impact
Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, an employee-led climate advocacy group, sharply criticized the report.
The group argued that Amazon’s AI strategy is worsening its emissions trajectory rather than helping solve climate problems.
“Amazon’s leadership shows an extreme lack of responsibility for AI’s impact on the climate,” the group said. “Despite Kara Hurst’s redirection to focus on how AI can create opportunities for sustainability, the company’s approach to AI is driving up emissions.”
Calls for slower data center growth
The group has criticized Amazon’s “warp-speed” approach to AI deployment.
Its members are not calling for a full ban on AI or the data centers needed to support it, but they want a slower and more measured buildout of AI infrastructure.
Seattle data center debate
Three Amazon employees who belong to the climate group spoke last month before the Seattle City Council ahead of a vote on a one-year moratorium on large-scale data centers in the city.
Those employees said they were later called into “interrogation”-style meetings with Amazon human resources representatives.
Open letter demands a climate plan
Amazon Employees for Climate Justice has also sent an open letter to company leadership.
The letter was signed by more than 1,200 Amazon employees and more than 4,000 workers from other corporations and research universities.
It calls on Amazon to power all data centers with renewable energy and publish a detailed plan showing how it will meet its climate commitments during the AI boom.
Climate group questions Amazon’s response
The employee group rejected Amazon’s framing of flexibility in climate execution.
“Amazon leadership’s response to a massive 16% increase in emissions is that they will ‘stay stubborn,’ but ‘flexible on the details,’” the group said. “Annual emissions going up 58% since the Climate Pledge was announced isn’t being ‘flexible on the details.’”
