Amazon buys 100,000 electric vehicles
Amazon has made “the first major commitment for electric delivery vehicles in the U.S.” with the announcement that the company will purchase 100,000 electric vans from start-up Rivian.
Earlier in the year Amazon invested $700 million in the Michigan-based start-up and has now placed an order with them for a customized fleet of electric delivery vans which are to be rolled out between 2021 and 2024.
This comes as part of an announcement from Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, about the company’s plans to be more sustainable. Other commitments included the company’s plans to: go carbon neutral by 2040, be using 100% renewable energy by 2030 and contribute $100 million to restoration of forests and wild lands through the Nature Conservancy. At a time where sustainability and climate change are more important than ever to consumers, Amazon’s announcements may lead to more companies following suit.
Click here to read more.
Coalition aims for zero-emission shipping
The Getting to Zero Coalition, a group consisting of 70 shippers, ocean carriers and energy providers, has announced in a press release this week that their aim is to decarbonize the industry in line with the Paris Agreement requirements. This announcement comes after United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) published their climate change strategy in 2018 which outlined that, “the industry needs to lower the total annual greenhouse gas emissions”.
It was found by the third IMO Greenhouse Gas Emissions Study, released in 2014, that “796 million tons of CO2 in 2012” was emitted by the Ocean Shipping Industry and that this accounted for “2.2% of the total emissions volume for that year”. In order to reduce this to zero-emissions the coalition has released a “four-phase roadmap” outlining how they plan to achieve this by 2030.
The coalition is not the only step that the industry is taking to reduce emissions. IMO’s Secretary General Kitack Lim, said that “some sectors of the industry are really grasping” the need for change and that this can be seen by emissions reducing ideas being explored for example, “battery powered and hybrid ferries, ships trialing biofuels or hydrogen fuel cells [and] wind assisted propulsion”. With the IMO earlier this year commissioning the Fourth IMO Greenhouse Gas Emissions Study, it remains to be seen how much of an impact these decisions will have on the amount of CO2 the industry emits.
To read further information, click here.
Car Manufacturers to temporarily halt production, if there’s a no deal Brexit
The UK is due to leave the European Union on 31st October, but it currently remains unclear as to whether the country will be leaving with a deal or not. As a result of this Jaguar Land Rover announced this week that they will halt production in its UK factories during the first week of November in wake of a no-deal Brexit. The company becomes the third car manufacturer, alongside Toyota and BMW, which will temporarily close its British factories “to help mitigate any disruption from a no-deal Brexit”.
The automotive industry, which is Britain’s largest exporter of goods, has voiced it’s concerns that “a disorderly departure from the EU” could cause disruption to the industry. With fears that the flow of parts could be interrupted, Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralph Speth told reporters that they “had to make plans now” as the factories require “20 million parts a day”. While it remains unclear, as to how the UK will leave the EU, companies continue to prepare for a variety of different scenarios.
Further details can be found here.
Have a nice weekend!
