2030 Finance | June 24, 2020

Amazon’s $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund ups the ante

Jessica Pothering
ImpactAlpha Editor

Jessica Pothering

ImpactAlpha, June 24 – Amazon has earmarked $2 billion to invest in “visionary companies whose products and solutions will facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy,” the company said in its sustainability report. Target sectors include transportation and logistics, energy generation and storage, and food and agriculture. Amazon says the fund has a global mandate to invest in companies of all sizes. 

The fund is designed to support the e-commerce giant’s pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. 

Amazon’s carbon footprint, from both direct and indirect operations, hit 51.2 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent last year — up 15% from 2018. The company said investments in solar farms, electric fleets and other low-carbon technologies have lowered the carbon intensity of its revenues. 

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is also a backer of Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a $1 billion clean tech investment firm that also includes among its partners Bill Gates, Jack Ma, Vinod Khosla and Meg Whitman and many more. BEV, with 27 companies in its portfolio, has been on an investment tear, backing Quidnet Energy, Zero Mass Water and BIOMILQ this month.