Microsoft signs a carbon capture agreement with Occidental. July 11, 2024

Microsoft symbol

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Microsoft signs a carbon capture agreement with Occidental.

Washington (AFP) July 10, 2024

Tech giant Microsoft on Tuesday signed a record carbon capture deal with Occidental Petroleum subsidiary 1PointFive, at a time when major tech companies are grappling with the growing carbon footprint of artificial intelligence.

The deal involves Microsoft buying 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits over six years.

According to the companies, this marks the largest single purchase of CDR credits enabled by direct air capture technology.

Direct air capture, or DAC, a method of extracting CO2 directly from the atmosphere, has gained traction among technology companies seeking to achieve ambitious net-zero emission targets.

"Energy demand across the technology sector is increasing and we believe that direct air capture is particularly well suited to removing residual emissions and furthering climate goals," said Michael Avery, president of 1PointFive.

The technology is one of several approaches being explored to combat climate change. However, it has faced criticism from some who fear it could be used as an unproven substitute for adopting more politically difficult measures.

The deal follows a similar agreement between Amazon and 1PointFive last year, which involved the purchase of 250,000 metric tons of carbon removal over a decade.

Microsoft and Amazon's CDR credits will be generated by Stratos, 1PointFive's first industrial-scale DAC facility under construction in Texas.

Direct air capture will support "our broader goal of becoming carbon negative by 2030," said Brian Marrs, Senior Director of Carbon Removal and Energy at Microsoft.

The agreements allow Microsoft and Amazon to offset their emissions by paying 1PointFive to remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it underground.

Before the DAC, the process of carbon capture generally involved extracting CO2 from industrial sources and then storing it underground or reusing it in products such as synthetic fuels or chemicals.

Although the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) considers carbon capture technology inevitable for limiting global warming, critics fear that it will be seen as an easy fix, which could discourage the sacrifices needed to reduce emissions.

The urgency of these agreements is underscored by the increase in emissions associated with the large loads of computing power needed to run generative AI.

Google recently reported an increase in its greenhouse gas emissions for 2023, attributed to powering the data centers that support AI operations.

Similarly, Microsoft's latest sustainability report showed a 29% increase in greenhouse gas emissions last year compared to 2020.

Experts note that companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Airbus, and even Lego are willing to pay more than $1,000 per ton of CO2 captured - and stored in the form of carbon credits - to offset their emissions.

arp/bgs