Amazon's global greenhouse gas emissions rose for the second straight year in 2025, hitting 80.8 million metric tons according to its latest sustainability report. The company's chief sustainability officer Kara Hurst told Semafor the increase was expected and driven by rapid data center construction for AI. Emissions from purchased electricity jumped 34% year on year, and supply chain emissions rose 20%. Amazon's carbon intensity also increased for the first time since 2019, meaning the higher emissions are not just from business growth. Hurst pointed to permitting delays, grid interconnection bottlenecks, and a shortage of clean power as the main reasons. Amazon remains the world's top corporate buyer of low carbon power, but most new data center load is still served by natural gas. The company is investing in lower carbon steel and concrete for construction and looking at advanced nuclear as a longer term solution. Amazon still aims for net zero by 2040, but the 2025 numbers show how hard that will be while data center buildout accelerates.
