AI-driven Datacenter Builds Increased Microsoft's Emissions 25% In One Year (theregister.com) 22
Microsoft released its 2026 Environmental Sustainability Report showing that last year it matched its entire electricity consumption with renewable energy, reports The Register.
"The bad news is it also increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 25%" — mostly due to datacenter construction and a decision to stop purchasing some renewable energy certificates:
In 2020, Microsoft set itself the goal of becoming "carbon-negative" by 2030. Its own figures show emissions heading only upwards, from 13 million tons of CO2 equivalent in 2020, to 20 million tons in 2025. However, Microsoft estimates that without the carbon reduction initiatives it has already put in place, emissions would now stand at 34 million tons...
For the first time, Microsoft claims to have replenished more [water] than it withdrew during 2025, returning 14,278 million liters (3,771 million gallons). Elsewhere, the corporation says its Circular Centers program reused 92% of decommissioned servers and their components.
For the first time, Microsoft claims to have replenished more [water] than it withdrew during 2025, returning 14,278 million liters (3,771 million gallons). Elsewhere, the corporation says its Circular Centers program reused 92% of decommissioned servers and their components.
And after all that..... (Score:3)
copilot is still a mess.
Re: (Score:3)
With Copilot there's at least a chance (a small chance) I can ignore it, I'm more concerned about what AI is doing to the Windows codebase.
Microsoft just told us to get ready for and increased volume of patches. No way in hell will the quality of those patches go up along with the quantity. High-volume, low-thought busywork - the task AI is most suited to.
Re: And after all that..... (Score:3)
Just build wind it and solar (Score:2)
A very tiny handful of people have had enough of you having access to civilization. They are not content to be unfathomably wealthy. They want to be elevated to the kind of godhood that the Japanese emperor and t
Re: (Score:1)
Remember: _everybody_ has an acre of land their house sits on and can get a 300+ ft. wind turbine erected, and doesn't want a backyard, and has space for a battery system that can supply power for 8 hours (hope it never gets cloudy or windless)... ignore that a lot of people live in apartments.
Oh, sure... the power company can install a crap-ton of either or both in a prairie and bill the residents the exact same price for power (maybe a little more).
And, keep in mind that the power needs of the AI slop fac
You're thinking is completely broken (Score:1)
United States has gobs and gobs and gobs of land and we have these things called power lines where we can have the power generated in one place and used in another. We could easily build massive wind and solar farms that would be quiet, no matter how many times orange people
Re: (Score:1)
Oh, wow... it's free power!
Even if you cancelled your connection to the power grid completely tomorrow... there's probably some archaic law someplace (or, there will be) that says your property has to be hooked to a pole (wire from the street onto the property) (at a minimum), and maybe even have an active billing cycle (smart meters that phone home or have a digital screen the reader guy reads). And, you wanna know how those laws (if they're there, or if they're in the works) got there? Big oil handing s
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
If coal pollutes, so does NatGas.
That's cool, Trump ensured America is winning at both
America increased coal usage so much that America alone was responsible for 300% of the global coal increase in CO2 for 2025 [iea.org]
In 2025 America increased coal the most in the world. And also increased Natural gas the most in the world too.
Re: (Score:2)
"Winning" for me means not getting cancer or a lungfull of coal tar. I understand coal salesmen have a different view. But their ask sounds awfully a lot like subsidizing their mine with my dime. To that, I have to decline.
Re: (Score:2)
Then, you must never walk outside into the pollutant-cloud that is Earth, and you must live in a hermetic bubble
No, I just don't suck exhaust pipes, and avoid industrial sites. You're making it way too complicated.
Might want to tell your power company to not send you any power other than solar and wind... don't know if they'll do that, but I bet if enough people did, they'd add it as an option.
They already encourage that with dynamic pricing.
Intermittent power sounds great
I already have that, I live in Texas.
Re: (Score:2)
America alone was responsible for 300% of the global coal increase in CO2 for 2025
Damnit, that's Trump "600% reduction" mathematics [aol.com]. I can see why you might think it's reasonable in this case, but could we please just call it 57% of the increase and not give in to idiocracy.
Re: (Score:1)
But the world's increase was only 27 Mt of CO2
America's increase was 78 Mt of CO2
Isn't learning fun.
what is 300% of 27? [google.com]
Even Google agrees with me.
The entire global increase was 135 Mt. The US portion of that was 78 Mt, or 57%.
Re: (Score:1)
If coal pollutes, so does NatGas.
That's cool, Trump ensured America is winning at both
America increased coal usage so much that America alone was responsible for 300% of the global coal increase in CO2 for 2025 [iea.org]
In 2025 America increased coal the most in the world. And also increased Natural gas the most in the world too.
How can America be responsible for 300% of the increase? Wouldn't 100% of increase be the absolute maximum?
Not just copilot (Score:2)
Before everyone starts hating about copilot and other MS AIs ... Microsoft Azure is one of the largest cloud providers.