According to Amazon's 2025 Sustainability Report, the company's absolute emissions increased by 16% year-over-year, reaching 80.9 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. This figure surpasses the total emissions of New Zealand, which recorded 77.8 million tonnes in 2024. The rise marks the largest annual increase since Amazon launched its Climate Pledge to achieve net-zero by 2040.
AI-driven data center expansion boosts electricity consumption
The primary driver of the increase is the unprecedented energy demand from artificial intelligence. Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenue grew 20% in 2025, but emissions from purchased electricity surged 34%. However, these account for only 5% of the total footprint. The company notes that carbon intensity per dollar of revenue is still 38% lower than in 2019, although it rose 3% year-over-year. A similar trend was observed at Google; as covered in our article, Google's electricity consumption surged 37% in 2025 due to AI buildout while emissions remained manageable.
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Supply chain accounts for three-quarters of total emissions
The most concerning finding involves the supply chain. Approximately 76% of Amazon's 2025 emissions come from its supply chain, up 20% year-over-year. This means that despite data center efforts, the company's biggest environmental challenge lies in transportation, logistics, and supplier materials. To address this, Amazon added 80 new renewable and carbon-free energy projects in 2025, bringing total capacity to 42 GW across 712 projects. Additionally, 61 construction projects used lower-carbon materials.
Data center efficiency improves but lags behind Google
Amazon's average Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) dropped to 1.14, a solid figure but higher than Google's 1.09 in 2024, indicating Google's data centers are more energy-efficient. Amazon claims its long-term investments in renewables and efficiency keep it on track for the 2040 net-zero goal, but the annual emissions growth raises doubts about credibility. As Cloudflare highlighted by mandating AI companies pay publishers by September 2026, the default block on mixed crawlers underscores the tension between tech growth and sustainability. According to authoritative sources, Amazon's full report is available online (e.g., on TechRadar). The company must demonstrate that its current trajectory aligns with net-zero emissions by 2040.
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