*Objective: Carbon neutrality of all signatory companies ten years before the target set in the Paris Agreement
In 2019, Amazon and Global Optimism founded “The Climate Pledge”. The initiative has set itself the goal of contributing to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement ten years earlier than it is intended there, i.e. already in 2040. The signing companies agree to:
- Measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis.
- Implement decarbonisation strategies in line with the Paris Agreement through real business change and innovation, including efficiency improvements, renewable energy, materials reductions, and other carbon emission elimination strategies.
- Take actions to neutralize any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent and socially-beneficial offsets to achieve net zero annual carbon emissions by 2040.
Mercedes-Benz has now joined the Climate Pledge and supports the initiative with its own Ambition 2039 initiative.
Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG & Mercedes-Benz AG explained:
“At Mercedes-Benz, we have set ourselves the ambitious target to make the transformation of mobility a success story. By joining ‘The Climate Pledge’ we are building on our goal to consistently pursue emission-free mobility and sustainable vehicle production. We stand with Amazon, Global Optimism and the other signatories of The Climate Pledge, in a commitment to being net zero carbon by 2040 – ten years ahead of The Paris Agreement. I am pleased that we will be able to gain even more momentum on our sustainability offensive with this step.”
“We welcome the bold leadership demonstrated by Mercedes-Benz by signing up to The Climate Pledge and committing to ambitious action to address climate change,” Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “We need continued innovation and partnership from auto manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz to decarbonize the transportation sector and tackle the climate crisis. The addition of 1,800 electric delivery vehicles is another step in our journey to building the most sustainable transportation fleet in the world, and we will be moving fast to get these vans on the road this year.”
One year ago, Mercedes-Benz presented its “Ambition2039”, a roadmap to CO2-neutral mobility. With that, the company is looking at the entire value chain, from development to the supplier network, its own production to the electrification of products and beyond to renewable energies for the use phase of electric vehicles. With its goal to have a CO2-neutral fleet of new cars in less than 20 years, the company is making an important contribution to slowing down climate change. The company is already making good progress in this direction: by the end of this year, the vehicle portfolio will comprise five fully electric models and more than 20 plug-in hybrids.
Vehicle production has a crucial role to play on the road to zero-emission mobility. From 2022, Mercedes-Benz’s own passenger car and vans plants will be CO2-neutral. This comprises more than 30 car and van plants worldwide. One important component of this is battery production, which will also be CO2-neutral worldwide from 2022.