Microsoft's carbon emissions rose 25 percent last year
Microsoft's 2026 sustainability report reveals a 25% increase in carbon emissions in 2025, driven mainly by datacenter expansion, as the company struggles toward its 2030 carbon-negative goal.
According to Microsoft’s 2026 sustainability report, the company’s carbon emissions increased by 25 percent in 2025, totaling 34 million metric tons “without select interventions.” The report attributes the rise primarily to the expansion of datacenter infrastructure and a decision last February to stop purchasing “non-additional, unbundled renewable energy certificates.”
Microsoft set a goal years ago to become carbon negative by 2030, meaning it aims to remove more carbon than it emits. This is not the first setback: the 2024 sustainability report showed a similar increase in climate pollution. This year’s report acknowledges that “while AI infrastructure is driving demand for energy, water, land, and materials, sustainability solutions are not scaling fast enough to meet demand.”
Similarly, Google’s 2026 sustainability report showed a 25 percent spike in its supply chain emissions, while Amazon reported a slightly lower 16 percent increase. In June, Amazon also stated its data centers used 2.5 billion gallons of water in 2025, which it claims is less than Microsoft used.
