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Bezos pledges to meet Paris Agreement 10 years early

San Francisco, Sep 20 

In a bid to tackle climate change, tech giant Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos and Global Optimism have announced 'The Climate Pledge' which is essentially a commitment to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement 10 years early.

The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance, signed in 2016.

'The Climate Pledge' calls on signatories to be net-zero carbon across their businesses by 2040, a decade ahead of the Paris Accord's goal of 2050.

"We're done being in the middle of the herd on this issue, we've decided to use our size and scale to make a difference," Bezos said in a statement.

By joining 'The Climate Pledge' and agreeing to decarbonise on a faster time horizon, signatories will play a critical role in stimulating investment in the development of low carbon products and services that will be required to help companies meet the pledge.

"If a company with as much physical infrastructure as Amazon, which delivers more than 10 billion items a year, can meet the Paris Agreement 10 years early, then any company can. I've been talking with other CEOs of global companies and I'm finding a lot of interest in joining the pledge," Bezos added.

Two years ago, Amazon made a long-term commitment to power its global infrastructure with 100 per cent renewable energy.

The firm is now pledging to reach 80 per cent renewable energy by 2024 and 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030 on its path to net-zero carbon by 2040.