Microsoft has an ambitious plan to reduce CO2 emissions. But on Thursday, the company reported a large increase in greenhouse gases from its operations and its products, a reminder of the challenges companies face when trying to clean up their businesses.
Microsoft’s carbon emissions increased 21.5 percent in the 12 months to June 2021, after small declines in 2020 and 2019. The increase was almost entirely driven by emissions from energy used to build data centers and make devices. , such as the Xbox and the Surface tablet. and of the power Microsoft estimates its products consume when people use them.
Microsoft has attempted to demonstrate that companies with committed leaders and adequate funding can effectively reduce their net emissions to zero in the coming years, reinforcing international efforts to limit the rise in global temperatures. But Microsoft’s sharp rise in emissions suggests that Microsoft and other companies may be struggling to meet their goals. And since the increase was the result of strong demand for products, it reminds us that robust business growth can often mean pumping more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Still, Microsoft leaders say they could be “carbon negative” by the end of the decade by cutting emissions and taking a variety of measures to remove carbon from the atmosphere. “We are still absolutely committed to — and absolutely confident in our ability to deliver — our 2030 commitment,” said Lucas Joppa, Microsoft’s chief environmental officer.
Many large companies have plans to cut their emissions and are under pressure from shareholders to do more. Investors have also urged oil and gas companies to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Microsoft is the first major technology company to report this year on the progress of its sustainability efforts. Meta, the parent company of Apple, Google and Facebook, all aim to reduce their net carbon emissions to zero by 2030. Amazon, which has a large delivery network and much more extensive supply chains, has a target for 2040 to do the same.
In a new move, Microsoft said Thursday it would stop doing specialized work for energy companies involved in extracting fossil fuels unless they had a “net zero” target. The term means there are generally no carbon emissions, a goal companies typically hope to achieve through a combination of emissions reductions and carbon removal.
and dr. Joppa said the recent disruptions in the oil and gas markets had not convinced him of the need to slow down the transition to renewable energy sources. “I’d say I haven’t seen anything that convinces me that we need to do anything but keep going faster,” he said.
Microsoft is also actively pushing its climate agenda outside of its own company. When the Securities and Exchange Commission asked the public for input on how corporate climate change disclosures might be standardized, Microsoft said it would support the committee’s development of such disclosure rules.
Government measures to encourage companies to adopt climate policies may meet some resistance in Washington – especially as the spike in energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked calls to ramp up oil and gas production.
“Private companies are free to pursue net-zero policies no matter how they feel — as long as they follow the law, it’s not a matter of public policy,” said Katie Tubb, senior energy and environment policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative. policy group, in an email. “Of greater concern are policymakers who seek to use government power to pressure or even demand such efforts in the private sector.”
In theory, Microsoft’s huge profits give it the means to achieve its goals. And the company has had success in reducing emissions from its own operations and the electricity that powers those operations, known as Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions in industry jargon. These fell 17 percent in the 12 months to June, and with increased clean energy purchases and efficiency measures, the company aims to reduce those emissions to nearly zero by 2025, a goal Dr. Joppa said Microsoft still expects to achieve.
Much more difficult is reducing Scope 3 emissions – those from a company’s supply chains and its customers. Microsoft’s Scope 3 emissions are nearly 50 times the size of Scopes 1 and 2 combined, rising 23 percent in the year through June, after small declines in previous years. The jump came from three main sources: energy used to build data centers; power consumption by suppliers; and energy consumed when customers used Microsoft devices, which exploded when the pandemic propelled the use of Xbox.
Still, Microsoft aims to more than halve its Scope 3 emissions by 2030. And by removing millions of tons of carbon from the air each year, it hopes to reduce its total emissions by the end of the decade.
An important factor will be the rapid development of decarbonisation technologies, which operate on a small scale and are expensive. Reforestation is currently Microsoft’s main method of removing carbon. The company said it had contracts for 2.5 million tons of carbon removal, but that only represents 18 percent of its carbon emissions in the year through June. dr. Joppa said Microsoft could achieve its goals even if technology that removes carbon directly from the air didn’t work.
