Microsoft Challenges Tech Industry to Follow Its ‘Carbon Negative’ Pledge

Microsoft’s pledgeOpens a new window to go “carbon negative” by 2030 and take more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits raises the environmental stakes among the big tech companies.

The software and services giant went further than its pledge by promising to remove by its 75^th anniversary in 2050 the equivalent of all historical emissions since it was founded in 1975.

With carbon emissions from computing rising rapidly as data centers handle a massive increase in traffic, the technology industry is coming under growing pressure to reduce carbon pollution.

Microsoft is going beyond its main competitors. Google has been carbon neutral since 2007, and Apple announced in 2018 that it was “completely powered by clean energy.” Amazon lags far behind, launching in 2019 a “Climate Pledge” to reduce carbon emissions and become carbon neutral by 2040.

Carbon neutral ‘not enough’

Going “carbon neutral” means a company offsets its carbon emissions through initiatives such as planting trees, converting to renewable energy such as wind and solar and removing carbon that warms the atmosphere.

But in announcing the company’s plan, Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, said: “When it comes to carbon, neutrality is not enough.” He explained that a blanket of greenhouse gases is trapping heat and warming the atmosphere, causing the climate to change.

“If we don’t curb emissions and temperatures continue to climb,” Smith saidOpens a new window , “science tells us that the results will be catastrophic.”

Microsoft has laid out a series of steps it will take to extract carbon from the atmosphere and become carbon negative: It won’t add to the total of two trillion tons of carbon already deposited by human activity. Its further goal of extracting all the carbon it has ever emitted by 2050 is seen as breaking new ground in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The pledge puts pressure on other companies to make similar commitments.

Microsoft will includeOpens a new window emissions linked to all its activities, not just those directly related to its buildings, data centers and operations. It will include emissions produced by its supply chain and the electricity used by consumers of its products when they switch on their computers and gaming consoles.

$1 billion climate fund

As part of the plan, Microsoft will spend $1 billion over four years on a Climate Innovation Fund to develop technologies that remove carbon from the atmosphere. Measures include reforestation and carbon soil sequestration by which carbon is extracted from the atmosphere and stored in the soil. There will also be investments in direct air capture, which sucks carbon out of the atmosphere, and carbon capture that burns crops for energy while collecting the carbon dioxide produced.

Additionally, the company will expand its internal carbon tax levied on its departments and internal teams for activities including flights and electricity use. The fees will be assessed on emissions from all Microsoft activities.

Microsoft’s announcement generated favorable news coverage but it comes against the background of the technology industry’s growing carbon emissions. One study claims that computing accountsOpens a new window for between 2% and 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, about the same level as air travel.

Expanding carbon footprint

Data centers are predictedOpens a new window to become the world’s biggest consumers of energy. Computing’s contribution to global warming, led by 5G wireless devices, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence breakthroughs, will clearly increase.

Virtual currencies such as Bitcoin and the immutable ledgers of Blockchain threaten to add significantly to carbon emissions. In all, the tech industry’s carbon footprint could grow to 10% or more of the global total.

As radical steps are taken to curtail emissions such as the imposition of taxes and threats to clamp down on polluting activities like flying, the tech industry needs to take preemptive action.

Microsoft’s pledge is a step in the right direction. But carbon emissions from the latest technologies are certain to soar. And every player in the technology industry needs to produce a radical strategy and show the world that they have a plan to solve the climate crisis.