Kevin Killough writes for Just the News about an interesting shift in Microsoft’s priorities.
During the Biden era, Microsoft was a leader in Big Tech’s push to eliminate fossil fuels and power the world with energy from wind and solar farms.
In January 2020, the company set ambitious goals to become carbon negative within a decade. This meant it would not only power all its operations with energy that produced no greenhouse gas emissions, it would also reduce some of the carbon emissions that other sources produce.
While the company has regularly promoted its commitment to anti-fossil fuel policies since announcing the plan, reports in the past few months suggest its easing back on some of those ambitions. It turns out carbon-negative pledges aren’t easy to meet if energy demands don’t remain flat.
The need to grow its artificial intelligence business is driving higher electricity demand, and that’s forcing some of Microsoft’s climate goals into retreat.
Over the years, Microsoft remained committed to the carbon-negative goal, while trying to force others to adopt the same standards. The company boasted in 2022 of using its influence to advocate for anti-fossil fuel policies. And last year the company tried to force its suppliers to adopt its emission standards.
Microsoft has also been investing in carbon removal schemes, which seek to suck carbon dioxide out of the air and store it in underground geological formations. …
… Now, Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed sources, that the company may shelve a more ambitious goal to “match” its hourly electricity use with renewable energy. It may abandon the target altogether. A spokesperson for Microsoft told Bloomberg that the company continues pursuing opportunities to match its annual demand with power purchase agreements but didn’t comment on the company’s ability to reach the hourly demand goal.
And according to Heatmap, the company is also telling suppliers and partners to pause future purchases of carbon removal.
