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2020: Microsoft sets goal to be carbon negative by end of the decade.
2023: Microsoft’s emissions are 30% higher than in 2020.
Main cause? The relentless push to meet AI demand, which requires new data centers built out of carbon-intensive steel, cement, chips.
Corporations will go green on public pressure.
The thing is, that the important part is not just reaching zero by 2030, it’s to minimize the carbon output along the way. For every ton emitted in addition to their plan in these past years, they should be undercutting their plan in the next years. Looking at the stats, that seems highly unlikely to happen, as they’d need to be carbon neutral for all of 2024 only to offset their failures in 2023. It’s so frustrating.