① Since 2020, Microsoft's emissions have increased by nearly one-third, which is gradually threatening the climate targets set by the company; ② the increase in emissions is largely due to increased construction of data centers running artificial intelligence and cloud computing systems; ③ Microsoft said on Wednesday that it will require some major suppliers to provide it with 100% “carbon-free” electricity by 2030.
Financial Services Association, May 16 (Editor Zhou Ziyi) The infrastructure construction behind artificial intelligence is consuming a lot of resources. Since 2020, Microsoft's total emissions have increased by almost a third, which is gradually threatening the climate goals set by the company.
Microsoft said in its annual sustainability report on Wednesday (May 15) that the company's total emissions increased by nearly 30% in 2023, largely due to the expansion of data centers running artificial intelligence and cloud computing systems.
According to the report, “The climate challenge we face is partly unique to us as a leading cloud vendor because Microsoft is now scaling up its data centers.”
Currently, the company is competing with competitors including Amazon and Google to invest in a large amount of infrastructure to support generative artificial intelligence. Microsoft has also invested $10 billion in OpenAI and is building its own AI tools.
Climate goals
According to the report, compared with the 2020 baseline, Microsoft's direct emissions and indirect emissions driven by energy etc. fell 6.3% in 2023.
However, emissions from Microsoft's supply chain increased by 30.9%, which accounted for a significant share of its total emissions, leading to a 29.1% increase in Microsoft's total emissions.
Compared to the climate goals set by Microsoft — to achieve “carbon negative” operations and achieve “zero waste” by 2030, the actual situation is far different from the target.
Given that generative AI is power-intensive and requires large amounts of energy and water, the path to building generative AI is often the opposite of the path to achieving climate goals.
Furthermore, competition in data center infrastructure construction has also raised concerns about whether power grids can meet the power demand expectations associated with artificial intelligence, and whether the amount of electricity generated from renewable energy is sufficient to power these technologies.
To address its expanding supply chain emissions, Microsoft said on Wednesday it will require certain major suppliers to provide them with goods and services that use 100% “carbon-free” electricity by 2030.
Microsoft also said this month that it will support the approximately $10 billion renewable electricity project developed by Brookfield Asset Management (Brookfield Asset Management) as part of its efforts to combine clean energy goals with artificial intelligence ambitions.