Amazon employees to walk out 'for livable future'
An immense number of Amazon employees vowed to walk off the job Friday saying the e-commerce giant needed to do more to fight for a "livable future," a move that comes in the wake of the company signing a pledge to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement.
More than 1,500 employees are planning a walk-out to support the Global Climate Strike, a worldwide climate change protest, to pressure "one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world” to do more to combat climate change.
The group, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, aims at taking responsibility for their business models, said the company's corporate climate pledge to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement 10 years early -- announced in detail by founder and CEO Jeff Bezos Thursday -- was not enough.
In a release by the collective, they said the “Climate Pledge” is a huge win but this won’t keep them off the streets as they vow to “fight for a livable future," adding that "the Paris Agreement, by itself," won't get them there.
The company, which ships more than 10 billion items a year on fuel-guzzling planes and trucks, said it has ordered 100,000 electric vans that will start delivering packages to shoppers’ doorsteps in 2021. It also plans to have 100 percent of its energy use come from solar panels and other renewable energy by 2030. That’s up from the current 40 percent.
Amazon plans to be carbon neutral, taking action to remove as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it put in, by 2040 and wants other companies to join it. The overall goal of carbon neutrality is to eventually achieve a zero-carbon footprint.
"Amazon is a heavy polluter, 'alongside major energy companies and heavy-industry firms.' Our pollution harms people and communities around our logistics hubs. We must take responsibility for the impacts of our business," the group tweeted Friday morning.
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In recognizing that pressure from employees can provoke change, the group plans to gather with thousands of fellow tech colleagues to call “attention to Big Tech’s complicity in accelerating the climate crisis,” and that the best way to draw attention to tech’s massive carbon emissions is to speak out -- together.
Earlier this year, more than 8,000 Amazon staffers signed an open letter to Bezos, demanding that Amazon cut its carbon emissions, end its use of fossil fuels and stop working with oil companies that use Amazon’s technology to find drillable oil faster.
Amazon didn't immediately respond to FOX Business' request for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
