AMZN Amazon.com Inc

By Patrick Thomas 

Amazon.com Inc. plans to buy 100,000 electric delivery trucks as it seeks to reduce its carbon emissions in the face of criticism of its environmental impact.

The order was part of a broader company pledge made by Chief Executive Jeff Bezos while speaking at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. Thursday. He said the company plans to be carbon neutral by 2040 and plans to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement 10 years early.

The e-commerce giant is ordering the electric vehicles from the suburban Detroit-based startup Rivian Automotive. Amazon said the vehicles will start delivering packages to customers in 2021. The company plans to have 10,000 of the new electric vehicles on the road as early as 2022 and all 100,000 by 2030.

Amazon led a $700 million financing round in the electric truck startup earlier this year. Rivian recently landed a $350 million investment from Cox Automotive, bringing its valuation to about $3.5 billion, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

Amazon has built up its delivery fleet in recent years and has become a force in the shipping industry, although it still works with companies such as United Parcel Service Inc. FedEx Corp. recently ended its two major shipping contracts with Amazon.

Mr. Bezos said Thursday that the commitments are part of a climate pledge that promises the e-commerce giant will report greenhouse gas emissions regularly and implement decarbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement. Amazon is the first company to sign the pledge.

Amazon said it expects 80% of its energy use to come from renewable sources by 2024, up from its current 40%, and eventually plans to transition to zero emissions by 2030.

"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," Mr. Bezos said in a statement.

Amazon's climate pledge comes one day before more than 1,550 Amazon employees threatened to walk out of work if the company didn't do more to combat climate change. The employees had pressed the company to have zero carbon emissions by 2030, stop providing its cloud computing services to fossil-fuel companies and to end donations to climate denying lobbyists and politicians.

The group said on Twitter that Amazon's Thursday announcement was a huge win, but said they still plan to walk on Friday.

"We're thrilled at what workers have achieved in under a year. But we know it's not enough. The Paris Agreement, by itself, won't get us to a livable world. Today, we celebrate. Tomorrow, we'll be in the streets," the group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice said in a tweet.

The Paris climate agreement had called for zero net carbon emissions by 2050.

Write to Patrick Thomas at Patrick.Thomas@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 19, 2019 13:52 ET (17:52 GMT)

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