Tech giants clandestinely join hands with climate deniers

OVER 350 Amazon employees from across the globe have alleged that the US tech multinational is funding climate deniers for oil and gas trade. The news comes months after Amazon chief Jeff Bezos publicly announced that his company is committed to become carbon-neutral by 2040. The employees, under the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice banner, spoke

An Amazon employee speaks at a rally outside the company’s shareholders meeting in May 2019

out after Amazon changed its external communications policy that threatens to fire employees for speaking out about climate change without proper authorisation. “They are telling

Jeff Bezos to end his hypocrisy: You cannot call your corporation a ‘leader’ on climate change while partnering with ExxonMobil and BP to extract more fossil fuels,” tweeted US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

This trend of tech multinationals either downplaying or, worse, faking their climate commitments is becoming common. In November 2019, over 2,300 Google employees, under Google Workers for Action on Climate, issued a list of efforts they want the company to undertake to fight climate change. The list includes, zero emissions by 2030, zero contracts with fossil fuel firms, zero funding for climatedenying or -delaying think tanks, lobbyists and politicians, and zero collaboration with entities enabling the incarceration, surveillance, displacement, or oppression of refugees or frontline communities. Similarly, employees of Microsoft openly criticised the company’s “complicity in the climate crisis” last September when it entered a partnership with oilfield services company Chevron and Schlumberger.