In this issue of The Weekly Reveal, we break down how:

• Amazon has marketed itself as a climate change leader, but an emissions report obtained by Reveal highlights the pitfalls of relying on voluntary commitments.

• Reveal’s groundbreaking reporting on domestic violence homicides “lit a fire for members of Congress” – and inspired a bipartisan Senate proposal to crack down on abusers with illegal guns.

🎧 Don’t forget: Reveal episodes drop every Saturday. Listen to this week’s episode, The Bitter Work Behind Sugar, now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Private Report Shows How Amazon Drastically Undercounts Its Carbon Footprint

Amazon has committed to going “net zero” by 2040, slashing carbon emissions and compensating for what’s left with carbon offsets.

But if Amazon were counting its carbon footprint like some of its competition, it would have to get rid of tens of millions more tons of carbon dioxide by radically transforming its business, forcing suppliers to change their own operations and paying for enormous amounts of controversial carbon offsets.

The keyword is if. 

Amazon plays by different rules than its peers when it comes to the climate impact of most of the things it sells, accepting less responsibility for global warming than even smaller competitors.

We know this because thousands of companies have agreed to disclose their carbon footprints to a nonprofit organization named CDP. But unlike the majority of companies pressured by investors to disclose, Amazon asked that its report not be shared publicly. 

However, we obtained Amazon’s report.

• Amazon tallies product carbon emissions only for its own Amazon-branded products, which make up about 1% of its online sales.

• Another 39% of sales come from products that Amazon buys from manufacturers and sells directly to the customer. The company doesn’t count the emissions that go into making these products – or those that come out of them. 

• The remaining 60% of Amazon’s sales come from third-party vendors. It doesn’t count those emissions either.

And that’s not all the report reveals.

> Read the full story by Will Evans.

> Read more of Reveal's reporting on Amazon.

📲 Reveal’s Will Evans is covering corporate accountability and climate change. If you have information to share with him on this topic, like documents, data or tips, you can contact him securely through Signal at 510-255-0865.‬

Listen: The Bitter Work Behind Sugar

Sugar is a big part of Americans’ daily diet. But who harvests some of that sweet cane? This week on Reveal, we go to the Dominican Republic, where Haitian migrants do the backbreaking work of cutting sugarcane for little pay. There’s also a strong link to two powerful Florida businessmen, Alfonso and Pepe Fanjul. 

How the Updated Violence Against Women Act Would Crack Down on Domestic Abusers Who Have Guns

Bipartisan language in the Senate’s new Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2022 aims to crack down on domestic abusers with illegal guns. Advocates credit Reveal’s reporting with forcing senators to confront a burgeoning crisis of soaring rates of intimate partner homicide.

• We found that domestic violence gun homicides surged 58% over the last decade and that many of those victims were killed by abusers who were prohibited from having guns. 

• The pandemic has been an especially lethal period for abuse victims. Gun homicides involving intimate partners rose 25% in 2020 compared to 2019, with women accounting for more than two-thirds of the victims shot and killed by intimate partners in 2020.

How will the new bill help? It has proposed language that:

• Overcomes current jurisdictional roadblocks and would allow the Department of Justice to appoint state and local prosecutors to enforce federal firearms laws.

• Would expand the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ reach by allowing local and state law enforcement officers to be deputized so they can act as agents to investigate abusers who violate federal gun laws. The ATF, the main federal agency responsible for enforcing the nation’s gun laws, told us that it doesn’t have a single agent focusing exclusively on domestic violence.

Efforts to pass the latest version of the Violence Against Women Act have been stalled since 2019. Advocates are hopeful that the 2022 update will break through the logjam. Five of the Senate GOP co-sponsors, including Iowa’s Joni Ernst and John Cornyn of Texas, opposed the Democrats’ bill in 2019. President Joe Biden has pledged to sign the reauthorization if it comes to his desk.

Read the full story by Jennifer Gollan.

Read and listen to Jennifer Gollan’s series: When Abusers Keep Their Guns

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