Microsoft: AI increases emissions by up to 40 percent
In 2020, Microsoft set itself the goal of becoming CO₂-neutral by 2030. Three years later, however, there is only one trend: upwards.
"Alarm, alarm!" you might shout when you see Microsoft's environmental report.
(Bild: vchal/Shutterstock.com)
The hype surrounding artificial intelligence is causing Microsoft's emissions of climate-damaging gases to skyrocket. From July 2022 to the end of June 2023 (fiscal year 2023), the company caused emissions of 15.4 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalents. This development is contrary to the plan to become climate-neutral by 2030.
Microsoft adopted this plan in 2020. The company uses the 2020 financial year as a baseline, in which Microsoft was responsible for 11.9 million to 12.3 million tons of CO₂ equivalents, depending on the calculation. Within three years, emissions have now risen to between 15.4 million and 17.2 million tons of CO₂ equivalents – an increase of 29 and 40 percent respectively.
At the same time, water consumption rose from just under 4.2 million to a good 7.8 million cubic meters. Electricity consumption, mainly for the operation of the data centers, has literally exploded – from 11,284 to 24,008 gigawatt hours over the three years. The majority of this (98 percent) comes from purchased green electricity.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Microsoft President Brad Smith admits that the increase is due to "new technologies". This mainly refers to hardware that is required for the training and use of AI algorithms. Microsoft, for example, provides a data center for OpenAI's ChatGPT.
(Bild: Microsoft)
Potential for even more climate-damaging gases
The statistics could look even worse, as the insufficient availability of Nvidia's AI accelerator H100 has significantly limited the construction of new data centers. Hyperscalers such as Microsoft would have built even more computing capacity if they had had the hardware to do so.
A further increase due to new hardware is already reflected in the business figures: in the first three quarters of the 2024 fiscal year, capital expenditure (CapEx) of USD 36.7 billion was already higher than in the entire 2023 fiscal year (USD 31.9 billion). Microsoft spends most of this money on the construction of data centers and the purchase of server hardware.
Construction and operation of data centers
Microsoft distinguishes between direct and indirect emissions. Thanks to green electricity, the directly caused emissions only account for a tiny 3.5 percent and have fallen over the last three years. Indirectly, three items account for the largest share: Capital goods (38.24 percent), the production of purchased goods and services (36.23 percent) and the use of sold products (14.05 percent).
In plain language: the purchased AI accelerators and processors are produced using climate-damaging gases, some of which escape into the atmosphere. These include the "eternity chemical" hexafluoroethane (C2F6), which has a global warming potential of around 12,000 times that of the same amount of carbon dioxide (CO2); one kilogram of hexafluoroethane in the atmosphere is therefore as harmful as more than 12 tons of CO₂. Some eternal chemicals cannot yet be banned from chip production because they are required for high-precision etching steps, among other things.
Microsoft also requires a considerable amount of concrete and steel for the construction of its data centers. In the future, the company wants to switch to climate-friendly alternatives.
Meanwhile, climate protection projects are intended to improve the balance sheet in the long term. Environmental projects currently being funded are expected to bind a good five million tons of CO₂ over the next 15 years. These include the reforestation of various regions and, on a small scale, plants that bind CO₂ from the air.
(mma)