Years After Microsoft Uses 'Linux' Foundation for Greenwashing PR Campaign...
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The Register UK ☛ Microsoft's carbon emissions up nearly 30% thanks to AI
The Redmond IT giant says that its CO2 emissions are up 29.1 percent from the 2020 baseline, and this is largely due to indirect emissions (Scope 3) from the construction and provisioning of more datacenters to meet customer demand for cloud services.
These figures come from Microsoft's 2024 Environmental Sustainability Report [PDF], which covers the corp's FY2023 ended June 30, 2023. This encompasses a period when Microsoft started ramping up AI support following the explosion of interest in OpenAI and ChatGPT.
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The Verge ☛ Microsoft’s AI obsession is jeopardizing its climate ambitions
Microsoft’s producing a lot more planet-heating pollution now than it did when it made a bold climate pledge back in 2020. Its greenhouse gas emissions were actually around 30 percent higher in fiscal year 2023, showing how hard it could be for the company to meet climate goals as it simultaneously races to be a leader in AI.
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Axios ☛ Microsoft's AI power needs drive surge in emissions
State of play: Microsoft divulged on Wednesday that its 2023 emissions were 29.1% above 2020 levels.
• That's primarily from data center construction and "associated embodied carbon" in building materials and hardware.
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CNBC ☛ Microsoft's carbon emissions up 30% since 2020 due to data center expansion
Microsoft's carbon footprint has increased 30% compared to 2020 due to indirect emissions from the construction of data centers.