Microsoft's emissions rose 27% in a year, and it stopped claiming carbon neutrality

Microsoft’s total emissions were 21.1 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent in its 2025 fiscal year, up from 16.7 million the year before. That is a 26.5% rise in twelve months, according to the company’s own 2026 Environmental Data Fact Sheet.

The year Microsoft measures its climate pledge against is 2020. Emissions then were 13.1 million tons. They are now about 62% higher, with five years left to reach the company’s goal of being carbon negative by 2030.

Where it came from

The fastest-growing line is electricity. Microsoft’s market-based Scope 2 emissions, the ones from the power it buys, went from about 259,000 tons to 2.7 million tons, roughly ten times as much in one year. Total energy use reached 37.5 million megawatt-hours, about 3.3 times what it used in 2020.

Water followed the same curve. Consumption rose 22% in a year to 8,170 megaliters, about double the 2020 figure. Half of the water Microsoft withdrew came from areas the company itself classifies as water-stressed.

The claim that went away

In February 2025, Microsoft stopped buying “spot” energy attribute certificates and carbon removal credits, the purchases that had let it describe its operations as carbon neutral. It also stopped reporting its carbon-neutrality and percentage-renewable metrics.

The fact sheet does not attribute the growth to any single cause. The buildout of data centers for AI is the largest thing Microsoft has been building in that period.