NE SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY BUREAU
WASHINGTON, JAN 18
Microsoft on Thursday set a new ambition among Fortune 500 companies in addressing climate change, pledging to remove as much carbon as it has emitted in its 45-year history.
The focus on clearing carbon from the atmosphere sets Microsoft’s climate goals apart from other corporate pledges which have focused on cutting ongoing emissions or preventing future ones.
“If the last decade has taught us anything, it’s that technology built without these principles can do more harm than good,” chief executive Satya Nadella said at a media event in Redmond, Washington.
“We must begin to offset the damaging effects of climate change,” he said, adding if global temperatures continue to rise unabated “the results will be devastating.”
The plan includes the creation of a Climate Innovation Fund, which will invest $1 billion over the next four years to speed up the development of carbon removal technology.
Microsoft’s pledge to address its historical emissions may resonate with some developing nations which say countries that created the most carbon, and wealth in the process, are not taking responsibility for their past pollution.
Microsoft plans to cut carbon emissions by more than half by 2030 across its supply chain, an effort requiring technology that does not fully exist, president Brad Smith said.
He said Microsoft would widen the reach of a fee it has charged its business divisions to account for their carbon emissions.
Co-founder Bill Gates was an early backer of Carbon Engineering, among a handful of developers of direct air capture technology.
Carbon Engineering CEO Steve Oldham said the firm’s first direct air capture plant is expected to capture 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year.
Microsoft’s goal of removing enough carbon by 2050 to account for all its emissions since its founding in 1975 includes direct emissions from sources such as vehicles and indirect emissions from electricity use.
Questions remain about the technology that Microsoft is considering. Sue Reid from US nonprofit Ceres, which works with companies on sustainability commitments, said the economics of direct air capture have yet to be worked out, and reforestation rates may not be fast enough to catch up with growing emissions. REUTERS
