E-commerce giant eBay has set a 2030 deadline for its new, ambitious emissions-reduction targets, in the wake of its joining the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) earlier this year.
Under the new targets, eBay has said it will cut its Scope 1 and 2 direct emissions by 90%, while its Scope 3 emissions (derived from distribution and transportation) are set to be slashed by 20% from a 2019 baseline. All of these targets are anticipated to be met within the course of the next decade.
The company has also said that, separate from its SBTi targets, it will be seeking to achieve carbon neutrality across its offices and data centres by the end of this year, offsetting emissions that cannot be directly reduced to help reach this goal.
The targets were announced at the end of last week (14 October).
“At eBay, we believe we have an urgent and important responsibility to mitigate the impact of climate change,” said Renee Morin, chief sustainability officer at the company. “We are committed to ambitious action and the approval of our science-based target along with our accelerated carbon neutrality goal are critical to the work we are doing to have real, measurable impact.”
Commenting on eBay’s latest announcement, Alberto Carrillo Pineda, Managing Director, Science Based Targets at CDP (one of the SBTi partners) said:
“We congratulate eBay on setting science-based targets consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C, the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement.”
“By setting ambitious science-based targets grounded in climate science, eBay is taking action to prevent the most damaging effects of climate change,” he added.
The SBTi works alongside businesses to help determine whether emission reduction targets are in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement’s aim of reducing our global temperatures to 1.5C.
To reduce its environmental footprint, eBay has already been reducing its water and energy use, harnessing renewable energy sources for 74% of its electricity in 2020 (up from 66% the previous year). The group’s San Jose headquarters is also powered by 100% renewable energy, with plans to expand this to all operations facilities by 2025.
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