Climate Pledge announces nearly 100 new signatories

SAN FRANCISCO, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Amazon and Global Optimism announced on Monday that more than 300 companies have now signed The Climate Pledge, a nearly 600 percent growth in signatories over the past year.

Among the nearly 100 new signatories joining today are the container shipping company Maersk, the enterprise software developer SAP, the North American timberland company Weyerhaeuser, and the residential solar company Sunrun.

Pledge signatories in total generate over 3.5 trillion U.S. dollars in global annual revenues and have more than 8 million employees across 51 industries in 29 countries and regions, the announcement said.

Signatories to The Climate Pledge must agree to measure and report greenhouse gas emissions regularly, implement decarbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement through real business changes and innovations, including efficiency improvements, renewable energy, materials reductions, and other carbon emission elimination strategies, to achieve net-zero annual carbon emissions by 2040.

"The effects of climate change are becoming more and more apparent in our surroundings and daily lives, and we firmly believe that the private sector must continue to innovate and collaborate across regions and industries in order to decarbonize the global economy at scale ... We can only do it together," said Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO.