Microsoft’s AI ambitions threaten to derail carbon neutrality pledge
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Microsoft Corp.’s ambitious pledge to remove more carbon than it emits by 2030 is now at risk due to its aggressive push to lead in artificial intelligence.
According to a sustainability report published Wednesday, the Seattle-based company’s carbon footprint is 30% higher today than it was in 2020, making its goal of becoming carbon-negative even more challenging.
According to President Brad Smith in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg Green, to meet its carbon-negative goals, Microsoft will need to rapidly secure access to green steel, concrete, and less carbon-intensive chips.
“In 2020, we unveiled what we called our carbon moonshot. That was before the explosion in artificial intelligence,” he said. “So, in many ways the moon is five times as far away as it was in 2020, if you just think of our own forecast for the expansion of AI and its electrical needs, ” Smith said.
Also read: Google’s new AI technique hunt for clean electricity to combat carbon footprint
Microsoft plans to spend over $50 billion between July 2023 and June 2024 on expanding its data centers to meet the growing demand for AI products.
According to Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood, this expenditure is expected to increase in the following 12 months. Since February, Microsoft has announced new data center projects in Wisconsin, Thailand, Indonesia, Spain, Germany, and Japan.
“We fundamentally believe that the answer is not to slow down the expansion of AI but to speed up the work needed to make it more environmentally friendly,” said Smith. “I guarantee there’s one way to fail: It’s to give up.”
Also read: EY joins hands with Microsoft to launch climate stress testing solution
Microsoft has also been a leader in purchasing sustainable aviation fuels, which has helped reduce emissions from business travel.
The company aims to partner with innovators to accelerate breakthroughs in creating greener steel, concrete, and fuels.
While these technologies are beginning to work on a small scale, they are still far from commercially available, even at high costs.
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