As emissions from Amazon’s e-commerce climb each day, the climate emergency grows more severe. Amazon’s dependence on fossil-fueled ocean shipping is not only accelerating our climate emergency, but is also disproportionately polluting the air in ports and coastal communities and low-income communities of color.

In 2019 alone, Amazon’s use of dirty ships emitted nearly 400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere—and that’s just for its imports into the U.S.

Amazon has committed to Ship it Zero by 2040 as a founding member of Cargo Owners for Zero Emissions Vessels, and it has committed to ship 10% of its freight on zero-emissions vessels by 2030 While this commitment is historic, it’s a decade too late. In order to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius—the benchmark suggested by the scientific community to avoid the worst elements of global warming—we need Amazon to make a bolder, earlier zero-emissions transition this decade, no later than 2030

Amazon is a retailer defined by firsts. It should be the first retail leader to get its ships off fossil fuels and commit to zero-emissions ocean shipping. We urge Amazon to stop moving products on fossil-fueled ships by 2030—10 years earlier than their present commitment.