Microsoft admits its carbon emissions grew 25 percent in 2025, including a  
  rise in fossil fuel use  
    
  Date:  
  Mon, 13 Jul 2026 09:50:00 +0000  
    
  Description:  
  Microsoft is the latest hyperscaler to blame AI for rising emissions, at  
  25%,  
  following similar rises from Google (25%) and Amazon (16%).  
    
  FULL STORY  
  A rise in diesel/crude oil consumption and Scope 2 emissions are key  
  drivers  
  In its latest sustainability report -- Microsoft has admitted its greenhouse  
  gas emissions actually rose 25.1% year-over-year from 16.2 million tons to  
  20.3 million tons in 2025.  
    
  With the company targeting a 2030 carbon negative deadline, rising  
  emissions  
  presents a major challenge that it must overcome, however current trends  
  point to emissions continue to rise even further. Microsoft said its rapid  
  expansion of AI and cloud data centers as a key driver for rising  
  emissions,  
  and with more projects in the pipeline, this could be an ongoing challenge  
  for years to come.  The company also noted its  
  decision to stop buying short-term renewable energy certificates that do  
  not  
  directly support additional clean capacity. While the previous year's  
  16.2-million-ton figure was lower than last year's, it was largely offset  
  by  
  carbon credits and doesn't accurately represent the true emissions.  
    
  More broadly, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions are also under pressure from  
  the  
  continued data center expansion, due to electricity purchases,  
  unsustainable  
  construction materials and compute hardware. For example, Scope 2 emissions  
  went from accounting for 1.6% of total emissions in FY24 to a staggering  
  13.3% in FY25.  
    
  As for fossil fuel use, the company saw a 51% rise in diesel and crude oil  
  consumption despite reductions in natural gas (-6.5%), propane/LPG/jet fuel  
  (-10%) and gasoline (-16%) use. Still, of the nearly 37.5 million MWh of  
  energy the company used in FY25, only around 422,000 MWh came from  
  non-renewable sources (per a separate data sheet ).  
    
  However, despite expansion-related challenges, Microsoft did make  
  significant  
  progress to reducing overall emissions, hitting around 20 million tons last  
  year instead of the 34 million tones it could have hit without work on  
  carbon-free electricity, sustainable fuels, energy efficiency improvements  
  and other supple chain refinements.  
    
  Microsoft isn't the only company battling the impacts of AI  Amazon also  
  recently noted a 16% annual increase in emissions, while also blaming AI  
  and  
  data centers. Google also saw a 25% rise in emissions for its most recent  
  full year.  
    
  Link to news story:  
    
  https://www.techradar.com/pro/microsoft-admits-its-carbon-emissions-grew-25-  
  pe  
  rcent-in-2025-including-a-rise-in-fossil-fuel-use  
    
  $$  
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