- Amazon says emissions up 16% by 2025 and emissions from purchased electricity up 34%
- Projects use renewable energy adaptation and lower carbon materials
- Data center PUE continues to improve, but Google does it better
In its 2025 sustainability report, Amazon revealed that its absolute emissions rose 16% to 80.9 million tonnes, meaning that a single company now generates as many emissions as an entire country – New Zealand (77.8 million tonnes in 2024).
The company blamed AI for creating unprecedented energy demand, causing emissions to rise significantly by 2025, but it argues that long-term investments in renewable energy and data center efficiency keep it on track toward its 2040 net-zero goal.
However, this is Amazon’s biggest annual emissions increase since it launched its net zero Climate Pledge, and its data center expansion plans continue to evolve.
Amazon’s emissions continue to grow – the 2040 net-zero goal remains realistic
Although AWS revenue grew by 20% by 2025, Amazon noted that the amount of CO2 per dollar of revenue actually grew by 3% year-over-year – although this figure, known as carbon intensity, is still 38% lower than in 2019 before aggressive AI-driven data center expansions.
But while data centers have certainly increased energy consumption and CO2 emissions, the company’s biggest contributor is actually its supply chain. Around three-quarters (76%) of its total emissions now come from its supply chain, an increase of 20% year-on-year.
Despite the 34% increase in emissions from purchased electricity, these emissions only account for about one-twentieth (5%) of Amazon’s total carbon footprint.
Amazon also noted that 80 new renewable and carbon-free energy projects by 2025 brought its total capacity to 42GW across 712 projects, with 61 of its construction projects last year using lower-carbon materials.
But with a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) score of 1.14, the data centers come in below Google’s 2024 figure of 1.09.
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