{"id":100643,"date":"2019-09-23T04:39:13","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T04:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/?p=434493"},"modified":"2019-09-23T04:39:13","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T04:39:13","slug":"ambition-is-good-action-is-better-making-progress-on-our-climate-commitments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/09\/23\/ambition-is-good-action-is-better-making-progress-on-our-climate-commitments\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambition is good; action is better: making progress on our climate commitments"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ambition-is-good-action-is-better-making-progress-on-our-climate-commitments.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>The dialogue at this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/climatechange\/\">United Nation\u2019s Climate Summit<\/a> has a refreshing air of sober reality. The urgency of the climate crisis has by now fully been absorbed, and the conversation has turned to the practical matter of what needs to be done to mitigate the worst impacts of a rapidly changing climate and adapt to that which we cannot avoid.<\/p>\n<p>This means that the time of raised ambitions and grand announcements without clear action plans is also past. That is why we are focusing this week on new and specific contributions both inside and outside our four walls that have the potential to meaningfully impact environmental outcomes. We have been doing this work for more than a decade and, in April of this year, we doubled down on our ambitions with a clear focus on doing more where it makes the most difference \u2014 beyond operational changes and increasingly on how we put technology to work for the planet. With that in mind, I\u2019m sharing several concrete developments and markers of progress, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Aligning our operations with a 1.5C climate scenario: <\/em>It\u2019s clear, given the science, that targets should be even more ambitious than the Paris Accord targets, which mapped to a 2 degree rise. Today, we\u2019re pleased to say that our renewable energy target has been certified by the <a href=\"https:\/\/sciencebasedtargets.org\/\">Science Based Target Initiative<\/a> (SBTi) as aligned to a 1.5-degree Celsius future. The certification is meaningful for two reasons \u2014 first, we believe that actions should be driven by the best available science, and SBTi uses that as a core criteria for approval and second, because what is most important is not just setting targets \u2014 it\u2019s meeting them. Science-based targets offer important measurement and accountability that is critical to assess if we\u2019re making the progress the world needs, in the time frame we have available.<\/li>\n<li><em>Extending carbon reduction work into our supply chain: <\/em>Today, we\u2019re setting a target reduction for our value and supply chain via our new SBTi-certified target, which will see us cut these emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030. Our supply chain, referred to in carbon accounting as Scope 3 emissions as indirect carbon emissions associated with anything from manufacturing to customer use of devices to employee airline travel, are far larger than our operational footprint. This is true for many companies and nearly all technology companies. We have already worked to drive transparency in this space, with more than 105 of our top suppliers reporting through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdp.net\/en\">CDP<\/a> (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), and will look to continue to do more in this space in the coming year.<\/li>\n<li><em>Going from carbon neutral operations to carbon neutral products: <\/em>Microsoft\u2019s business operations have operated carbon neutral since 2012. Today we are beginning the journey of extending that to our products and devices with a pilot to make 825,000 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unenvironment.org\/news-and-stories\/press-release\/video-games-industry-levels-fight-against-climate-change\">Xbox consoles carbon neutral<\/a>. These are the first gaming consoles to be carbon neutral. While just a pilot, we\u2019re already looking at what we can do to further reduce and neutralize carbon across devices in the future.<\/li>\n<li><em>Putting technology in the hands of others for the good of the planet: <\/em>The investments we\u2019ve made to make our devices and datacenters and supply chain greener are good for the planet but have exponential impact when the world is using these greener computing resources to power new AI breakthroughs for the planet. That\u2019s why we\u2019re continuing to expand our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/ai\/ai-for-earth\">AI for Earth program<\/a> with new grant partners like <a href=\"https:\/\/conservationxlabs.com\/\">Conservation X Labs<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.org\/\">National Geographic Society<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wri.org\/\">World Resources Institute<\/a>. We now have more than 430 grantees in 71 countries and just released our first APIs and code on our website and GitHub. The newest members of AI for Earth include the young leaders who participated in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/climatechange\/youth-summit.shtml\">Youth Summit\u2019s Summer of Solutions<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It\u2019s important to note that while we\u2019ve made progress on several fronts, there is still much work to do within Microsoft to embed sustainability more deeply across the company and into all that we do. We are committed to doing this work and being transparent about our journey. And we\u2019ll continue to work with external organizations like the Science Based Target Initiative and CDP, which have done so much to drive concrete, measurable change to hold us accountable and aligned to the best science.<\/p>\n<p>This summit comes at a pivotal moment in time. I\u2019m encouraged by the passion and participation I\u2019ve seen already at the Youth Summit and new corporate announcements as well. It\u2019s a welcome antidote to the fatalistic worldview that is all too easy to adopt when it comes to the future of the planet.<\/p>\n<p>We must also not give in too easily to optimism unless it\u2019s paired with real action. The road ahead will be challenging, and progress will certainly require everyone to do more. We\u2019re committed to doing our part. Microsoft sees a responsibility and opportunity as a leading cloud and AI provider to play a major role in deploying solutions, applying capital and market power and reducing our sizable environmental footprint.<\/p>\n<p>But progress is indeed possible. That\u2019s not a na\u00efve hope but one based on evidence: technology breakthroughs over the past few years, new work underway across our business, and a growing appetite from customers to digitally transform their businesses with sustainability in mind. We\u2019re celebrating today in New York, and tomorrow we get back to work. I hope you\u2019ll join us.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tag-list\">Tags: <a aria-label=\"See more stories about AI for Earth\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.microsoft.com\/on-the-issues\/tag\/ai-for-earth\/\" rel=\"tag\">AI for Earth<\/a>, <a aria-label=\"See more stories about climate change\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.microsoft.com\/on-the-issues\/tag\/climate-change\/\" rel=\"tag\">climate change<\/a>, <a aria-label=\"See more stories about Environment\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.microsoft.com\/on-the-issues\/tag\/environment\/\" rel=\"tag\">Environment<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The dialogue at this year\u2019s United Nation\u2019s Climate Summit has a refreshing air of sober reality. The urgency of the climate crisis has by now fully been absorbed, and the conversation has turned to the practical matter of what needs to be done to mitigate the worst impacts of a rapidly changing climate and adapt [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[137,50],"class_list":["post-100643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft-news","tag-environment","tag-recent-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}