In a bold move, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has chosen to bypass the global standard for verifying carbon offsets, instead supporting the development of a new standard. This strategy is seen as a significant step towards achieving its goal of zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.
What Happened: Amazon is backing the creation of a new standard called Abacus, developed in collaboration with carbon registry Verra. This new standard is being viewed as an alternative to the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) standard, the world's largest private sector and environmental group consortium for validating carbon offsets.
Amazon founder and executive chair, Jeff Bezos, is one of ICVCM's biggest donors through his $10-billion Earth Fund. However, it remains unclear whether Bezos played a role in Amazon's decision to sidestep the ICVCM standard.
While this move by Amazon has sparked concerns about potential market confusion and a compromise in the standards of carbon offsets, the company's head of carbon neutralization, Jamey Mulligan, defended the decision, stating that Amazon is seeking a more ambitious standard.
"We want to ensure that every credit investment has a real, conservatively quantified and verified impact on emissions," Mulligan said.
Several tech giants including Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corporation, and Salesforce.com Inc. have announced plans to purchase up to 20 million metric tons of Abacus-certified credits.
Why It Matters: This move by Amazon comes in the wake of various initiatives by the company and its founder, Jeff Bezos, to combat climate change. In 2020, Bezos announced the creation of the Bezos Earth Fund, a $10 billion initiative aimed at addressing climate change. The fund has since committed $60 million to establish the Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein in 2024, aiming to revolutionize the food industry.
Amazon has also been making strides towards zero emissions, as evidenced by its deployment of electric trucks in 2024. The company revealed the first of twelve Volvo electric big rigs it intends to operate, marking its first venture into electric big rigs and a significant step towards its goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
The Abacus label will be available within weeks, according to Verra. The voluntary carbon offsets market, currently valued at $2 billion, has remained small due to concerns about the veracity of underlying projects' claims to curb emissions.
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This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Pooja Rajkumari