Microsoft emissions rise 25 percent as data centers expand

Microsoft’s carbon emissions rose 25 percent in fiscal 2025 to 34 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, even as the company matched 100 percent of its annual electricity use with renewable energy. Microsoft’s 2026 Environmental Sustainability Report attributes the increase primarily to expansion of its datacenter infrastructure and the company’s February 2026 decision to stop buying "non-additional, unbundled renewable energy certificates" that had helped lower reported emissions.

Microsoft said total electricity consumption grew 24 percent last year, and that the growth of AI is changing the responsibilities that come with building technology at scale. After accounting for carbon removals, the company’s net footprint was about 20 million metric tons, roughly comparable to the annual emissions of Panama or Lithuania.

Microsoft plans to become carbon negative, water positive and zero waste by 2030, a target that requires removing more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits. The company also replenished more fresh water globally than it withdrew for the first time and reached 92 percent reuse and recycling of decommissioned cloud servers and components for the second consecutive year. Microsoft has signed 40 gigawatts of clean power purchase agreements across 26 countries, with 19 gigawatts currently online.

In May 2024, Microsoft co-founded the Symbiosis Coalition with Google, Meta and Salesforce to contract for 20 million metric tons of high-integrity nature-based carbon removal credits by 2030. Microsoft and Chevron plan to build a 2.67-gigawatt natural gas facility in Texas that would supply dedicated electricity to Microsoft for 20 years.