Microsoft’s total emissions increased 25% in 2025, according to its latest sustainability report, adding to the trend of tech companies polluting more heavily as they ramp up AI data centers.
And the company’s emissions are set to keep surging, outside analysts say, as it relies on fossil fuels to power that infrastructure.
Microsoft says the increase last year was “driven primarily” by the growth of its AI data centers and its decision to pause its use of certain renewable energy certificates.
The tech giant reiterated that it still aims to be carbon negative by 2030, per the sustainability report, meaning that it needs to remove more carbon emissions than it emits.
But Microsoft’s emissions are likely to keep increasing. Its report did not mention three upcoming gas power plant projects that will more than double its emissions, according to an analysis commissioned by Stand.earth, a nonpartisan, nonprofit environmental advocacy organization.
The three projects will total 4.75 gigawatts of capacity, and are expected to emit more than 15 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year.
Of course, those emissions wouldn’t be counted in a report looking at 2025, but by not mentioning these planned projects, Microsoft’s sustainability report is “brushing the truth under the rug,” Rachel Kitchin, senior corporate climate campaigner at Stand.earth, says in a statement.
“Microsoft talks proudly about reaching 100% matched renewable energy, but fails to mention that it just signed a 20-year fossil fuel deal with Chevron that blows its targets out of the water,” she adds.
“Sustainability solutions are not scaling fast enough”
These future polluting projects are also part of a trend in which Microsoft has continued to increase both its emissions and its electricity consumption in the past five years.
Microsoft’s scope 2 emissions, which include pollution from power, now represent 13% of the company’s total carbon footprint, up from “nearly 2%” last year, per its sustainability report.
Since 2020, the company’s electricity consumption has surged nearly 250%, according to Stand.earth, putting Microsoft’s total power use on par with the entire country of Denmark.
Microsoft is up-front about how its pursuit of AI is challenging its climate commitments. “While AI infrastructure is driving demand for energy, water, land, and materials, sustainability solutions are not scaling fast enough to meet demand,” the report notes.
However, when asked about Stand.earth’s forward-looking analysis, Microsoft did not address specific questions about the report and instead maintained that artificial intelligence can also be used to further sustainability efforts.
“Microsoft’s strategy includes exploring a variety of options for mitigating the emissions from its electricity consumption, consistent with our sustainability ambitions,” a spokesperson tells Fast Company.
Though Microsoft paused its carbon removal purchases recently, it has not ended its carbon removal program, the spokesperson notes, adding that Microsoft “[remains] focused on bringing more carbon-free electricity onto the grids where we operate and continuing to support the expansion of clean energy solutions.”
Microsoft isn’t the only tech company seeing climate impacts in the age of AI.
Though Google says it reduced its operational emissions by 2% year over year in its 2026 sustainability report, it also saw a 37% annual increase in electricity demand and a 25% increase in its supply chain emissions, reflecting, in part, “the scale of new AI infrastructure.”
Amazon’s absolute emissions also increased 16% in 2025, compared with the year prior. Its supply chain emissions specifically—which account for three-fourths of its total carbon footprint—grew 20% compared with 2024.
