- Amazon says emissions up 16% in 2025, emissions from purchased electricity up 34%
- The projects use renewable energy and low-carbon materials.
- Data center PUE keeps improving, but Google does it better
In its 2025 Sustainability Report, Amazon revealed that its absolute emissions increased by 16% to 80.9 million tonnes, meaning that a 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 argues that long-term investments in renewable energy and data center efficiency keep it on track toward its goal of net zero emissions by 2040.
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 emissions goal remains realistic
Although AWS revenue grew 20% in 2025, Amazon noted that the amount of CO2 per dollar of revenue actually grew 3% year over year, although this figure, known as carbon intensity, is still 38% lower than in 2019, before aggressive AI-driven data center expansions.
But while data centers have certainly caused an increase in energy consumption and carbon emissions, the company’s biggest contributor is actually its supply chain. Around three quarters (76%) of its total emissions now come from its supply chain, a 20% year-on-year increase.
Despite the 34% increase in emissions from purchased electricity, those emissions only represent about one-twentieth (5%) of Amazon’s total carbon footprint.
Amazon also noted that 80 new carbon-free and renewable energy projects in 2025 brought its total capacity to 42 GW across 712 projects, and 61 of its construction projects last year used low-carbon materials.
But with a PUE score of 1.14, its data centers fall short of Google’s 1.09 figure for 2024.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds.
