Amazon first announced The Climate Pledge, co-founded with Global Optimism, in September 2019. Since then, we have been on a mission to develop and scale new and innovative ways to make our business more sustainable as we work to reach net-zero carbon by 2040—10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.
As part of Amazon’s commitment to achieve the goals of the pledge, we launched The Climate Pledge Fund in 2020. The fund is a $2 billion investment program to support the development of sustainable and decarbonizing technologies and services that will enable Amazon and other companies to meet the goals set by The Climate Pledge.
Our latest investment is in BETA Technologies, the builders of an Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft with the ability to serve the needs of air medical delivery, cargo logistics, government, and passenger travel. The ALIA, BETA's electric aircraft, can carry three cargo pallets or up to six people with zero operational emissions.
"We support BETA Technologies' mission to reshape air transportation through zero-emission aviation and are proud to invest in them through Amazon's $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund," said Kara Hurst, Vice President, and Head of Worldwide Sustainability at Amazon. "The development of sustainable and decarbonizing technologies will help facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy and protect the planet for future generations."
"BETA is focused on transforming aviation and finding a solution to help companies reach zero emissions within the next 20 years," said Kyle Clark, founder and CEO of BETA Technologies. "We're pleased with progress on our zero-operational-emission electric aircraft and the ecosystem we're building to support it. It's gratifying to have Amazon's confidence as we work to enable sustainable cargo transportation.”
The investment in BETA Technologies builds on Amazon’s work to help decarbonize air and ground transportation including previous investments in Rivian, builders of electric vehicles, with the plan to have more than 100,000 custom electric delivery vehicles on the road by 2030; ZeroAvia, developers of hydrogen-electric aviation solutions, and Infinium, creators of net-zero carbon diesel and jet fuels.
The Climate Pledge Fund is investing in visionary companies across industries, including transportation and logistics, energy generation, storage and utilization, manufacturing and materials, circular economy, and food and agriculture. To date, Amazon has invested in ZeroAvia, CarbonCure Technologies, Pachama, Redwood Materials, Rivian, Turntide Technologies, Infinium, and now BETA Technologies. All of these companies are advancing technologies and business solutions that can help Amazon and others reach net-zero carbon by 2040.
