An image shared on Instagram by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Infosys has joined The Climate Pledge and committed to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement 10 years early, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced today. The Climate Pledge was co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism in 2019 and calls on signatories to be net zero carbon across their businesses by 2040 - one decade ahead of the Paris Agreement goal of 2050.
Infosys - an Indian multinational company that provides information technology (IT), business consulting and outsourcing services - is among three companies who have joined the Amazon-backed Climate Pledge, Mr Bezos announced. American telecommunications conglomerate Verizon and British consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser have also committed to it.
"Very pleased to share today that @verizon, @infosys, and @discoverrb have signed The Climate Pledge - committing to reach the Paris Agreement goals 10 years early," Mr Bezos, 56, wrote in a post shared on Instagram.
He said the pledge was founded to "encourage more companies to use their size and scale to fight climate change" and thanked the three companies for signing it. "Big thanks to these companies for stepping up and showing leadership," Mr Bezos wrote.
"Infosys is showing bold leadership by signing up to The Climate Pledge and committing to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement ten years early," Mr Bezos said. "When significant companies join the initiative, they send an important signal to the market that it's time to invest in low carbon products and services."
Infosys and other companies who sign the Pledge agree to measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis, power its operations with renewable energy and implement decarbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement.
"At Infosys, we recognized climate change as a serious threat to our planet early on, and realized our responsibility as a corporate institution to mitigate its impact by taking concrete steps," said Salil Parekh, CEO and MD, Infosys. "We believe that the way in which global organizations responded to this crisis would play a big role in defining how the rest of the world takes up the cause. As a result, we committed to climate action over a decade ago, and since then, the impact on climate and environment have been important considerations in the decisions we make as an organization. We are pleased to partner with Amazon and Global Optimism in The Climate Pledge initiative with a collective aim to work towards a low-carbon future."
Infosys has already made significant investments to a portfolio of community-based emission reduction projects to help meet its net zero carbon goal, the company said in a statement. These projects also contribute to the socio-economic development of rural India while addressing climate change.
Last year, Infosys was awarded the United Nations Global Climate Action Award in the 'Climate Neutral Now' category at the UN Climate Change Conference.