Five more companies join Amazon's 2040 net zero pledge

Five more companies, JetBlue, Rivian, Boom Supersonic, Cabify and Uber, announced on 2 December that they have signed Amazon's Climate Pledge commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040, a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement's goal of 2050.

That brings the number of signatories to the initiative to 18, Amazon said, with the others: Amazon, Best Buy, Boom, Cabify, Henkel, Infosys, JetBlue, McKinstry, Mercedes-Benz, Oak View Group, Real Betis, Reckitt Benckiser, Rivian, Schneider Electric, Siemens, Signify, Uber and Verizon.

US-based JetBlue is the first airline to join the Climate Pledge. The company said it achieved carbon neutrality for all domestic flights in July 2020 by using offsets and expects to ramp up to offsets for over 7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

JetBlue bought Verified Carbon Units (VCU) carbon offsets registered under the Verra Program from the Larimar Wind Project in Dominican Republic on the newly-launched Aviation Carbon Exchange (ACE) platform last week. It was the first transaction on ACE, owned by the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) and operated by spot carbon offset trading platform provider CBL.

The construction of the first phase of the Larimar Wind project started in early 2015, and operations began in August 2016. The project's start date qualifies it for compliance in the pilot phase of the UN's aviation decarbonization scheme known as CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation).

IATA did not confirm the price for the VCUs bought by JetBlue. The last trade for a CORSIA-eligible carbon credit on the ACE platform was made at $0.77/mt on Wednesday, according to the CBL platform.

Boom Supersonic also plans to use carbon offsetting and sustainable aviation to reach the goals of the Climate Pledge. Cabify is an urban mobility app in Europe and Latin America, already carbon neutrality through offsetting. Both Cabify and vehicle hire company Uber seek to achieve the Climate Pledge goal with drivers using EVs.

Amazon itself has pledged to purchase 100,000 EVs, as part of its $2-billion commitment to reaching zero emissions. It has an interim goal of having half of its shipments be net zero emissions by 2030.

Best Buy will seek to reach its goals by improving energy efficiency in its stores, fleet electrification, renewable power purchases and offsets.

Signatories to the Climate Pledge agree to implement decarbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement through efficiency improvements, renewable energy, materials reductions, and other carbon-emission elimination strategies, neutralizing any remaining emissions with carbon offsets, Amazon said Tuesday.

Original reporting for OPIS by Nandita Lal, 2 December 2020.