Microsoft, Alphabet executives defend data center expansion at climate meetings as emissions surge

At Climate Week NYC, executives from Microsoft and Alphabet stood in front of rooms full of climate-conscious attendees and essentially said: yes, we know our emissions are climbing, and yes, we’re going to keep building data centers anyway. The remarks came against a backdrop of sustainability reports that made for uncomfortable reading. Microsoft’s emissions jumped 25% year-over-year in 2025, reaching 20 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent. Alphabet wasn’t far behind, posting an 18% emissions increase driven largely by supply-chain activities. The numbers behind the expansion The core issue is electricity. Google’s power demand surged 37% in 2025, marking the largest single-year increase the company has ever recorded. Microsoft’s electricity consumption grew by 24% over the same period. To put that in perspective, hyperscale data centers don’t just need a lot of power. They create concentrated electricity loads that can strain entire local grids, pushing utilities to fire up dirtier generation sources to keep the lights on for everyone else. Microsoft has tried to soften the blow with community-focused commitments. The company has pledged to cover the full power costs associate...