Microsoft has an ambitious plan to cut its carbon emissions. But on Thursday, the company reported a big increase in the greenhouse gases emanating from its operations and its products, a reminder of the challenges that companies face as they try to clean up their businesses, reports Rauters.
Microsoft's carbon emissions were up 21.5% in the 12 months through June 2021, after small declines in 2020 and 2019. The increase was almost entirely driven by emissions from energy used to build data centres and make devices - like the Xbox and the Surface tablet - and from the power that Microsoft estimates its products consumed when people used them.
Microsoft has sought to show that with committed leaders and sufficient funding, companies can effectively reduce their net emissions to zero in the coming years, bolstering international efforts to limit the rise in global temperatures. But the surge in Microsoft's emissions suggests that it and other companies may have trouble meeting their goals. And since the increase resulted from strong demand for products, it is a reminder that robust business growth can often mean pumping more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Still, Microsoft's leaders say they can be "carbon negative" by the end of the decade by cutting emissions and using a variety of measures to remove carbon from the atmosphere. "We're still absolutely committed to - and absolutely sure of our ability to meet - our 2030 commitment," said Lucas Joppa, Microsoft's chief environmental officer.
Many large companies have some sort of plan to cut their emissions, and they face pressure from shareholders to do more. Investors have also pressed oil and gas companies to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Microsoft is the first large tech company to report this year on the progress of its sustainability efforts. Apple, Google and Facebook's parent, Meta, all aim to get their net carbon emissions to zero by 2030. Amazon, which has a large delivery network and much more extensive supply chains, has a 2040 goal to do the same.
"None of this is going to be easy for any company - decarbonization is a challenge," said Laura Draucker, a director at Ceres, a nonprofit group that works with investors and companies to address environmental challenges. But when large tech companies like Microsoft report setbacks on their emissions, she added, it should prompt them to press jointly for policies that promote "affordable, equitable access to clean energy."
"It doesn't have any impact on their competitive advantage," she added.
In a new move, Microsoft indicated on Thursday that it would no longer do specialised work for energy companies involved in extracting fossil fuels unless they had a "net zero" target. The term means having no carbon emissions overall, a goal companies typically hope to achieve through a combination of emissions reductions and carbon removal.
And Joppa said the recent disruptions in the oil and gas markets had not convinced him of the need to slow the move toward renewable sources of energy. "I would say that I have not seen anything that convinces me that we should do anything other than continue to go faster," he said.
Microsoft is also active in pressing its climate agenda beyond its own business. When the Securities and Exchange Commission asked the public for input on how corporate climate change disclosures might be standardised, Microsoft said it would support the commission's development of such disclosure rules.
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