- Amazon says emissions rose 16% in 2025, purchased electricity emissions up 34%
- Projects are using renewable energy matching and lower-carbon materials
- Data center PUE continues to improve, but Google does it better
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.
Amazon's emissions continue to grow – 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.
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