Amazon’s carbon emissions surged last year while global pollution dropped

Amazon said its carbon emissions surged 19 percent last year even as global pollution declined and the company publicly pledged to go green.

The Seattle-based e-tailing giant — whose business exploded last year on surging demand for home-delivered goods from locked-down consumers — said it spewed out 60.64 metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2020. That made Amazon a bigger polluter than entire countries like Ireland, Portugal and Singapore, according to European Union data.  Amazon’s 2020 emissions represent a dramatic increase from the 51.17 million metric tons of carbon the company released in 2019 and 44.40 metric tons it expelled 2018, according to the company’s sustainability report released Wednesday.