Amazon\u2019s emissions increased 6 percent last year, as the e-commerce and cloud computing giant continued to expand its artificial intelligence (AI) efforts and build out its data center footprint. <\/p>\n
The company\u2019s total emissions ticked up from 64.38 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2023 to 68.25 metric tons in 2024, according to its annual sustainability report<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cToday, in virtually every corner of Amazon, we\u2019re using generative AI to make customers\u2019 lives better and easier \u2014 and while we\u2019ve made a lot of progress, we\u2019re still at the relative beginning,\u201d Amazon wrote. \u201cOne of the biggest challenges with scaling AI is increased energy demands for data centers.\u201d <\/p>\n AI requires vast amounts of energy. As major tech firms race to develop the technology, this has weighed on their efforts to cut emissions. <\/p>\n Amazon launched The Climate Pledge in 2019, setting the goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2040. The e-commerce firm\u2019s total emissions ticked down in both 2022 and 2023 before rising this past year. <\/p>\n Nearly three-fourths of the company\u2019s carbon footprint came from indirect emissions from other sources, primarily data center construction and fuel consumed by third-party delivery service providers, it noted. <\/p>\n Last month, Amazon announced it was investing $10 billion in North Carolina and $20 billion in Pennsylvania<\/a> to build out its data center infrastructure in the two states.\u00a0<\/p>\n