Amazon's sustainability chief admits uncertainty

Kara Hurst, Amazon's chief sustainability officer, said Tuesday the company doesn't know how to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.

“I'm not going to sit here and say, 'We know all the ways that we're going to do this.'”

Amazon's scale makes the admission significant

Amazon generated seven hundred seventeen billion dollars in revenue last year, roughly the size of Ireland's economy.

Power has shifted to corporations

As the UN Secretary General has noted, power has moved from governments to a few large corporations, bringing responsibility with it.

Amazon says it needs government partnership

Hurst told TechCrunch that tackling climate change at scale requires both companies and governments working together, not companies acting alone.

“This isn't a question of companies versus governments. Tackling climate change at the scale it demands takes both.”

Amazon has invested in clean energy

Amazon is one of the world's largest clean energy purchasers with forty two gigawatts in its portfolio, though carbon intensity rose last year.

But Amazon is building a massive gas plant

An investigation revealed Amazon plans a seven point six five gigawatt natural gas power plant for an AI data center, releasing up to thirty three million tons of carbon dioxide annually.

AI revenue trumps climate commitments

Amazon, which operates the world's largest cloud service, prioritized AI revenue growth over climate goals by betting big on natural gas.

Market forces alone won't solve this

The climate tech world hoped cheaper clean power would drive emissions down, but the AI rush shows that approach has limits even for climate leaders.