Our Planet Climate and Geopolitics
Microsoft has pledged to be “carbon negative” by 2030 but its emissions grew by nearly 30 per cent between 2020 and last year thanks mainly to the construction of more data centres, according to its latest sustainability report. The growth of Microsoft’s carbon footprint underlines the clash between tech companies’ climate commitments and their drive to harness power-hungry AI. Data centres are built from carbon-intensive materials and while their operations have become more efficient, their energy use is still growing by up to 40 per cent a year. Microsoft – which measures the emissions of its entire value chain – said it would require some “high-volume” suppliers to make 100 per cent use of renewable energy for the goods and services they deliver, a commitment that could ripple through the whole economy.