Amazon's total greenhouse gas emissions jumped 16 percent in 2024, driven largely by the company's massive expansion of data centers to support artificial intelligence. The increase highlights the tension between Big Tech's climate pledges and the surging energy needs of AI infrastructure. Amazon has committed to net zero carbon by 2040, but its latest sustainability report shows emissions rising instead of falling. The jump comes from both direct and indirect emissions, including the electricity used by Amazon's cloud computing division AWS. As AI workloads grow, data center power demand is climbing fast. Amazon says it is investing in renewable energy and efficiency to offset the increase, but the numbers show the challenge of decarbonizing while scaling compute-heavy AI services. The report is a reminder that tech climate goals will require more than just purchasing offsets or renewable credits.
