In 2020, Microsoft set an ambitious climate goal to be carbon negative by 2030. Halfway into the decade, the company’s latest sustainability report released Thursday shows the software giant has a long way to go to meet that goal but may be starting to bend its emissions curve downward.
The report shows the company’s total 2024 greenhouse gas output of 15,543,000 metric tons is still about 23 percent higher than its 2020 baseline of comparison. But Microsoft’s total annual emissions in 2024 are slightly lower for the first time since the artificial intelligence boom brought a surge in data centers, computing power and energy consumption. The 2024 emissions are roughly 1.4 million metric tons lower than in 2023, and the lowest annual emissions the company has reported since 2021.
Microsoft’s climate goal to be carbon negative by 2030 means not only eliminating its total emissions but also supporting projects that draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
“We’re focused on the long-term goal of meeting our 2030 commitments,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Newsweek via email. “The annual reporting process is an important check-in each year to see how we’re doing, and it informs our decision-making as we keep working to meet those goals over the next five years.”
In a foreword to the report, Microsoft Corporation Vice Chair and President Brad Smith and Chief Sustainability Officer Melanie Nakagawa wrote that “our journey towards being carbon negative is a marathon, not a sprint.”
They noted that while emissions have been going in the wrong direction since Microsoft made its climate commitments in 2020, the increase has been “modest” compared to the company’s revenue growth and far higher energy consumption over that period.
Smith and Nakagawa wrote that the company remains “focused on sustained progress towards our 2030 goals.”
Cloud computing and the explosion of generative AI and large language models have greatly increased energy consumption by the tech sector. If the regional power grid that supplies a data center or tech campus burns fossil fuels to generate electricity, that drives up the company’s emissions due to energy use, known as Scope 2 emissions.
“We must also bring more carbon-free electricity onto the grids where we operate,” Smith and Nakagawa wrote.
According to the report, Microsoft used power purchase agreements to contract 19 gigawatts of new renewable energy in 2024 in 16 countries. Microsoft also sought other carbon-free energy sources, including an agreement last September with Constellation Energy that aims to restart an idle reactor at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Station in Pennsylvania.
A Microsoft spokesperson said the company is “on track to achieve our 2025 target of procuring enough renewable energy to cover 100 percent of our energy consumption.”
Greenhouse gases that arise from the suppliers and the company’s value chain, known as Scope 3 emissions, account for the bulk of Microsoft’s CO2 output. According to the report, the company’s Scope 3 emissions have grown 26 percent since 2020.
Microsoft requires its large-scale suppliers to commit to a transition to 100 percent carbon-free electricity for the goods and services they deliver. The report detailed innovative solutions to reduce emissions from the construction and operation of data centers.
Last week, Microsoft announced an agreement with a Massachusetts company called Sublime Systems, which has developed a low-carbon method for cement production. Traditional cement-making methods produce massive amounts of CO2, and the industry is a major global source of emissions.
Microsoft’s purchase agreement for more than 622,000 tons of low-carbon cement will help the new company ramp up its output.
“Microsoft is stepping up as the first customer for our future megaton-scale plant, enabling us to more rapidly build and scale Sublime Cement as a global, enduring solution for clean construction.” Sublime Systems CEO and Co-founder Leah Ellis said in a statement.
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