Microsoft promised to be carbon negative by 2030. Its own report shows emissions up 25% in a year instead. The number is worse than it looks, and also more honest than it looks, and the reason for both is the same: AI data centres.
Microsoft set one of the boldest climate targets in tech. By 2030, it said, it would remove more carbon than it emits. Its 2026 sustainability report shows the company moving the other way.
Greenhouse-gas emissions rose 25.1% in the last financial year, from 16.2 million tonnes to 20.3 million, as TechRadar noted from the filing. That is roughly 58% above the 2020 baseline Microsoft set when it made the pledge.
Why the jump is partly honesty
Not all of that rise is fresh pollution. Microsoft has stopped buying short-term renewable-energy certificates that do not add real clean power to the grid. Those credits had flattered last year’s figure. Strip them out, and the true number climbs.
