Amazon reveals it used more energy than New Zealand in 2025 as its carbon footprint rises 16%

Date:
Thu, 02 Jul 2026 12:05:00 +0000

Description:
AWS has more data centers than before, hence the rise in emissions, but
supply chain emissions are still a major problem.

FULL STORY
In its 2025 Sustainability Report , Amazon
revealed its absolute emissions increased 16% to 80.9 million tonnes, meaning that one 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 in 2025, but it argues long-term investments in renewable energy and data center efficiency keep it on track for its 2040 net zero goal. However, this is Amazon's largest annual emissions increase since it launched its net zero Climate Pledge, and its data center expansion plans continue to develop.

2040 net zero goal remains realistic -- Although AWS
revenue grew 20% in 2025, Amazon noted the amount of CO2 per dollar of
revenue actually grew 3% year-over-year though this figure, known as carbon intensity, is still 38% lower than 2019 before aggressive AI-fuelled data center expansions.

But while data centers have certainly caused energy consumption and carbon emissions to rise, the company's biggest contributor is actually its supply chain. Around three-quarters (76%) of its total emissions now come from its supply chain, up 20% year-over-year.

Despite the 34% increase in emissions from purchased electricity, those emissions only account for around one-twentieth (5%) of Amazon's entire
carbon footprint.

Amazon also noted that 80 new renewable and carbon-free energy projects in 2025 brought its overall 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, its data centers fall short of Google's 2024 figure of 1.09.

Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/amazon-reveals-it-used-more-energy-than-new-zeal and-in-2025-as-its-carbon-footprint-rises-16-percent

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* Origin: Capitol City Online (1:2320/107)