Amazon’s Climate Pledge Commits $10 Million to EVs in Latin America, India

Glenn Taylor
·5 min read

Logistics giants are teaming up to decarbonize shipping on the road and out at sea.

The Climate Pledge—co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism—partnered with climate leadership network C40 Cities to launch Laneshift, an initiative tackling carbon emissions in developing countries through zero-emission freight by reimagining medium- and heavy-duty shipping vehicles.

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Laneshift is designed to accelerate the development of electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure and the deployment of EV trucks in the Indian cities of Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Pune and the Latin American cities of Bogotá and Medellin in Colombia; Curitiba and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil; Quito, Ecuador; and Mexico City.

The Climate Pledge is committing $10 million to jumpstart the endeavor.

“Cities in Latin America and India offer excellent opportunities to lead the way for electrification of trucks, and collaboration in these regions are critical to accelerating the transition to a cleaner, healthier environment,” said Kara Hurst, vice president and head of worldwide sustainability at Amazon. “Laneshift provides a platform to bring stakeholders together to move faster.”

Amazon has sought to decarbonize its transportation network with multiple EV partnerships. In 2022, it operated more than 9,000 electric delivery vehicles and delivered over 145 million packages using EVs in the U.S. and Europe.

The e-commerce giant now has more than 5,000 Rivian EVs operating in the U.S., and it recently announced the first 300 to operate in Germany, closing in on its goal of deploying 100,000 Rivian EVs by 2030. Amazon is on track to have 10,000 EVs in India by 2025.

According to the International Transport Forum, road freight emitted more than 2.2 billion metric tons of CO2 in 2020—doubling the emissions of air, sea, and rail freight combined.

“To meet net-zero emission targets, we need to urgently electrify truck fleets,” said Mark Watts, executive director at C40 Cities. “Laneshift will help to lay the groundwork for the adoption of EV vehicles in India and Latin America by decarbonizing freight in cities, resulting in cleaner air and good, green jobs even beyond city borders.”

Through Laneshift, The Climate Pledge and C40 Cities, which is comprised of nearly 100 mayors from major global cities, will work alongside private and public sector stakeholders, city governments and non-government organizations to help reduce and avoid greenhouse emissions.

The organizations will also contribute to cleaning up dirty air that impacts vulnerable communities in some of the largest and most densely populated cities in Latin America, where road freight is expected to double by 2050, and in India, where urban freight is projected to grow by 140 percent by 2030.

By sending demand signals and collaborating across transportation and logistics sectors, Laneshift aims to help create a roadmap for how the freight industry and cities can collaborate to accelerate the transition to EV freight. This locally focused initiative complements Amazon’s federal and regional efforts in these markets.

CMA CGM, Maersk team up in decarbonization

Two titans in the container shipping field, Maersk and CMA CGM, are also joining forces to accelerate the decarbonization of the ocean shipping industry.

They will collaborate to promote alternative greener fuels for container vessel propulsion. They will develop higher standards for alternative sustainable, green fuels—including the analysis of full lifecycle and related greenhouse gasses—and help to set a framework of mass production of green methane and green methanol.

The companies will also develop and maintain standards for the operation of green methanol vessels with regard to safety and the refueling of vessels.

CMA CGM and Maersk will also continue jointly exploring R&D on other components of the net zero solution as new alternative fuels, like ammonia, or innovation technology for their ships.

Each firm has working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Both Maersk and CMA CGM have ordered vessels that can be operated on bio/e-methanol. CMA CGM also has ordered liquefied natural gas (LNG)-propelled vessels, that can also be operated on bio/e-methane, the new green equivalent of current LNG.

The Ship It Zero campaign called on Maersk and CMA CGM to accelerate th transition from heavy fuel oils to truly zero-emission maritime fuel and technology fast enough to peak their emissions before 2025, while halving them from 2019 levels by 2030. It believes CMA CGM can do more.

“We are encouraged by Maersk and CMA CGM’s partnership to move to green methanol-fueled ships, but we are still concerned about the use of fossil-fueled LNG ships and the climate destruction that they bring,” said Eric Leveridge, lead of Pacific Environment, a partner advocacy group running the Ship it Zero campaign. “The shipping industry must listen to the dire warnings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and transition to real solutions now to peak the sector’s climate emissions before 2025—not continue to support false solutions like LNG.”

Maersk and CMA CGM urged other international shipping lines to join their decarbonization initiatives.

Amazon and Maersk extended their low-carbon shipping partnership earlier this month. This marks the fourth consecutive year that they have arranged container shipping using low greenhouse gas (GHG) fuel.

The partnerships help the companies make progress in adhering to their Climate Pledge goals. The Climate Pledge calls on signatories like Maersk to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040—a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement’s goal of 2050. Signatories agree to regularly measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions, implement the decarbonization measures laid out in the Paris Agreement and implement quantifiable, permanent carbon offsets.

Amazon and Global Optimism co-founded The Climate Pledge in 2019, with more than 400 organizations on board.

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