Amazon Makes Net-Zero Carbon Pledge Focused on the Oceans

With global climate change getting worse, companies are becoming more vigilant on pledging to help reduce carbon emissions.

E-commerce giant Amazon has a new net-zero carbon pledge that is focused on the oceans.

Marine shipping accounts for 1 billion tons of carbon emissions per year, according to the Clean Air Task Force (CATF).

Amazon and IKEA are among the companies making a pledge to only use zero-carbon fuel ocean vessels by the year 2040.

New renewable sources of fuel such as marine ammonia will be required, and transitioning the shipping industry away from fossil fuels will require an “intense globally coordinated effort,” said the CATF.

The announcement on Tuesday included other consumer-facing companies like Patagonia, Brooks Running, Inditex, Michelin, Unilever, Tchibo, and Frog Bikes.

“In order to combat the climate crisis, we must rapidly decarbonize marine shipping,” Jonathon Lewis, Director of Transportation Decarbonization at CATF said in a statement.

CATF data has found that U.S. shipping is responsible for 80 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. The agency proposes making marine ammonia from renewables (referred to as green ammonia), nuclear power, or carbon capture and storage operations in industries including fossil fuels (referred to as blue ammonia).
Many major cargo companies including Maersk, Fleet Management Limited, Keppel Offshore & Marine, Sumitomo Corporation and Yara International began a study of a green ammonia supply chain at the Port of Singapore earlier this year.

“Emitting zero CO2 when combusted, ammonia has long been considered as one of the most promising alternative marine fuels to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within the shipping industry,” the group said in a statement.

“So far, it is unclear which measures could achieve the emissions reduction targeted by the IMO (much less, reductions that are consistent with the Paris Agreement), but it is unlikely that it will be through technology alone,” CATF wrote in its report on transportation decarbonization. It added, “The shift to ammonia will need an intense globally coordinated effort.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.