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posted by martyb on Thursday June 25 2020, @02:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the cleaning-up dept.

Amazon creates a $2 billion climate fund, as it struggles to cut its own emissions:

Investment areas: In a press release, Amazon said the new fund would focus on startups that could help it and other businesses achieve "net zero" emissions by 2040. It will invest across a wide array of industries, including transportation, energy generation, energy storage, manufacturing, materials, and agriculture.

What's behind the move? The Seattle retail giant has come under growing pressure from the public and its own employees to shrink its environmental footprint as the dangers of global warming grow. [...]

Earlier Amazon efforts: Several days later, Amazon committed to achieve "net zero" emissions by 2040, which means it would need to offset any remaining emissions from its operations through investments in carbon removal projects, such as forest restoration or carbon capture machines. In February, chief executive Jeff Bezos, the world's richest person, announced he would donate $10 billion of his personal fortune to scientists, activists, and NGOs working to address climate change.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 25 2020, @04:40PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday June 25 2020, @04:40PM (#1012468)

    a new fleet of emission spewing vehicles delivering everything from half empty trucks, or from its own contractor and employee vehicles.

    If the half empty trucks are costing Amazon significantly less than FedEx/UPS would, odds are they're more efficient and spewing less net CO2. One might argue that FedEx/UPS was funneling profits to their corporate overlords, but those profits translate to things like Megayachts and mansions which also spew CO2 in their construction, operation, maintenance and disposal.

    At least with more direct control of their fleet, Amazon has the control to do things like invest in electrification of their vehicles - and if that works on the greed balance sheet (without tax incentives) then it's also most likely a net improvement in overall CO2 emissions. Not that tax incentives for green power were/are a bad thing, they're a necessary kick to get get the industry going, but they do skew the overall efficiency picture.

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