Amazon pledges $2 billion to projects fighting environment change
24 June, 2020
Amazon on Tuesday pledged to get $2 billion in tasks targeted at combatting climate switch, stepping up efforts to lessen the carbon footprint of the tech giant and other folks.
The Climate Pledge Fund will back efforts by startups and other companies in multiple sectors to "facilitate the transition to a zero carbon economy," Amazon said in a statement.
The initiative "can look to purchase the visionary entrepreneurs and innovators who are building products and services to greatly help companies reduce their carbon impact and operate more sustainably," said Amazon founder and leader Jeff Bezos.
"Companies from all over the world of all sizes and levels will be looked at, from pre-product startups to well-established enterprises. Each possible investment will end up being judged on its potential to accelerate the path to zero carbon and support protect the earth for future generations."
The pledge follows an announcement by Bezos this past year that Amazon would accelerate its efforts to cut its carbon footprint while encouraging others to become listed on his "Climate Pledge" targeted at meeting goals of the Paris accord on climate before schedule.
Since then, the pledge has been joined by others including U.S.-centered telecom huge Verizon, British consumer goods strong Reckitt Benckiser and India-based tech huge Infosys.
Amazon has said it is on track to perform on completely renewable energy by 2025. In addition, it will deploy a lot more than 100,000 electrical delivery vans to replace gasoline-powered vehicles.
The new fund will spend money on companies in multiple industries, including transportation and logistics, energy generation, storage and utilization, manufacturing and materials, circular economy, and food and agriculture.
Amazon will also look for other investors to add to the fund which is targeted at efforts to "decarbonize the market and protect the earth."
The news headlines comes amid growing concerns on climate change and with the united states administration on course to withdraw from the global agreement aimed at curbing emissions.
Some scientists have warned that environment change is accelerating, building mitigation initiatives more urgent.
The previous five years have already been the latest on record, as has been the last decade, based on the European climate monitoring network.
Source: japantoday.com
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