Microsoft announces plan to cut emissions in half by 2030

Microsoft announced plans to reduce emissions by more than half by 2030. Further, it aims to remove more carbon than it emits annually as a company to achieve a carbon impact below net zero.

By 2050, the company aims to remove from the environment all the carbon Microsoft has emitted either directly or through electrical consumption since it was founded in 1975.

Along with the emissions reduction goals, the Redmond, Washington-based company announced it would launch a $1 billion USD (about $1.3 billion CAD) Climate Innovation Fund with its own capital. The fund’s goal is to accelerate the development of sustainability solutions, such as carbon reduction and removal technologies.

However, Microsoft didn’t just announce an ambitious goal. The company backed it up with numbers and a concrete plan for ways it can reduce its carbon emissions. For example, the details include shifting to a 100 percent supply of renewable energy for all its data centers, buildings and campuses by 2025. Microsoft also intends to electrify its global campus operations vehicle fleet by 2030.

Microsoft will expand its internal carbon emissions fee to more areas to help reduce emissions. Each division of the company must pay the carbon fee for its emissions and the funds go towards sustainability improvements.

Further, the company acknowledges that solving the climate crisis will require new technology that isn’t available today. That’s why it opened the Climate Fund in order to spur development of new technologies to help reduce or remove emissions. Microsoft says that the Climate Fund alone is not enough, but it hopes to set an example for other businesses and governments.

Finally, Microsoft will release an annual Environmental Sustainability Report that details the company’s work on reducing carbon impact.

You can read the full details of Microsoft’s plan in the company’s carbon blog post here.