Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, is also the world's largest purchaser of clean energy. The company recently added to its renewable supply with a solar farm in California that stores clean energy in batteries and uses AI to smartly match that stored power with demand. It’s part of the company’s plan to be net zero on carbon emissions by 2040. But Amazon has faced criticism for halting progress toward that goal. In a wide-ranging Better Planet interview, Amazon Environment Director Chris Roe defended the company’s climate commitment and its approach to energy partnerships. “It's not going to be a linear path to 2040,” Roe said. “These are really tough problems that Amazon's not going to be able to solve alone.”

June marks the official start of hurricane season for the North Atlantic, and forecasters are warning of an exceptionally busy and dangerous summer due to a “perfect storm” of climactic conditions. Climate change is raising sea temperatures, providing fuel for storms, while this year’s shift from the cyclical weather pattern of El Niño to a cooler La Niña system makes winds more favorable for the formation of tropical storms. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted 17 to 25 named storms this season with eight to 13 of those likely turning into hurricanes.

In climate news elsewhere, The Washington Post reported last week on another beach house sliding into the ocean along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, a popular East Coast vacation destination. The house in the town of Rodanthe was built in the 1970s and was the sixth house in the area to slide into the sea over the past four years amid rising seas and rapid erosion. An analysis by the Post found that waters near Rodanthe have risen by 4.6 inches since 2010.

And the third-largest country in the Americas just elected a new president this weekend, a trailblazer who is the first woman elected to lead Mexico and the first climate scientist to lead a major nation. Claudia Sheinbaum won election Sunday in a landslide victory for the hand-picked successor to outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Sheinbaum earned her PhD in energy engineering and did research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California before returning to Mexico to launch a career in public service. She was Mexico City’s environment secretary and later became its mayor. The AP reported that Mexico has pledged to get 43 percent of its energy from clean sources by 2030 and today gets about 22 percent from renewables. However, Sheinbaum has also embraced the oil-friendly policies of her predecessor, including construction of a huge new oil refinery.

Stay with Better Planet for the latest on climate progress. This week, we’ll get a report card on global progress to increase renewable energy and learn how some Florida scientists are working to grow new coral reefs to buffer shorelines from storms.