Microsoft announces a massive 25 percent jump in emissions

Microsoft’s greenhouse gas pollution increased by nearly 25 percent in the past year, Microsoft said in its new sustainability report released Thursday.

This report comes in the wake of similar reports issued by Google and Amazon last week. Together they show a worrying trend of rising emissions by technology companies, driven by the global race to build Power-hungry data centers.

In a Blog post Announcing the report, Microsoft vice president and president Brad Smith and chief sustainability officer Melanie Nakagawa said the emissions increase was driven “primarily by the expansion of our data center infrastructure.”

Much of this increase was related to emissions from energy the company purchased or obtained to power its operations, they wrote. Known as Scope 2 emissions, greenhouse gas pollution represents 13 percent of Microsoft’s total emissions.

Data centers, which use large amounts of power to power artificial intelligence chips, have pushed many big tech companies toward increasingly elusive net-zero goals over the past few years.

Amazon revealed a 16 percent increase in its CO2₂ Emissions in the latest sustainability report. Google He said In its new sustainability report, annual greenhouse gas emissions rose by 18 percent last year compared to 2024, the World Environment Organization said. The largest increase in one year It has been registered. The company has invested heavily in renewable energy, but is also starting to add Fossil fuel power For some of their data centers.

Microsoft highlighted in its sustainability report that it has matched 100 percent of its electricity consumption with carbon-free sources. But data center construction is set to accelerate, as may happen with some of Microsoft’s recent investments Pushing their emissions higher. It is worth noting that the new report covers the fiscal year 2025, which ended last June, and a number of deals have been concluded since then that included gas-powered data centers.

Last month, the company officially announced a partnership with Chevron, which is building a power plant to power a future data center for the company in West Texas. Permits show this power plant could emit more than 11.5 million tons of carbon dioxide₂ That’s the equivalent of a year, an amount larger than the entire state of Rhode Island. The company has also leased buildings at the Stargate Campus in Abilene, Texas, which will be powered by an on-site power plant that could emit more than 7.8 million tons of carbon dioxide.₂ Equivalent to every year. Microsoft also signed a non-binding letter of intent for computing at a data center in West Virginia, which will be powered by off-grid gas that can It emits more than 11 million tons of greenhouse gases.

“Microsoft’s strategy includes exploring a variety of options to mitigate emissions from its electricity consumption, consistent with our sustainability ambitions,” Nakagawa says in a statement to WIRED.

Microsoft’s approach to offsetting some of its emissions through credits and other investments is also changing. The company says it has stopped purchasing unbundled renewable energy certificates, a move that partly contributed to rising Scope 2 emissions. These types of certificates were used criticized in recent years As greenwashing because it does not necessarily add more clean energy to the grid. Unbundled RECs are essentially “a paper transaction that is physically disconnected from real-world consequences,” says Danny Cullenward, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. (Colinward is also a visiting faculty member at Google, but noted that he was not speaking on behalf of the company.)

“I think it is very commendable that Microsoft is moving away from unbundled RECs and prioritizing investments in new clean electricity, where PPAs and other long-term offtake agreements can give rise to new clean electricity,” he adds.

Despite rising emissions and its ongoing investments in AI, Microsoft still says it plans to become “carbon negative” by 2030. Smith and Nakagawa write that the global race for AI “is driving increased demand for energy, water, land, and materials.” They say the company “has a responsibility to help ensure that technology strengthens, rather than strains, the systems and communities that depend on it.”