“The math is clear: many of our deals entirely negate our company’s emissions goals,” they wrote. In addition, Will and Holly noted that none of the 50 oil and gas companies Microsoft was working with publicly claimed to use Microsoft’s AI or cloud computing technology to transition away from fossil fuels, as Nadella had argued.
In fact, it was just the opposite. BP was using Microsoft AI technology to “invest in more oil and gas;” Chevron was using it for “new unconventional [fracking] wells,” and Exxon was using it to “improve exploration success.”
“Such clearly stated strategies are alarming in that they make Microsoft’s claims of enabling the transition to a clean economy materially misleading to both shareholders and employees,” they wrote. “We do not wish to be made complicit.”
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They also realized that there was no outside activist group dedicated to holding Big Tech accountable for the climate impact of their work with fossil fuel companies. So after quitting in January 2024, they created Enabled Emissions.
Holly sees Enabled Emissions as complementary to groups like No Tech for Apartheid, which calls attention to Google and Amazon’s $1.2 billion AI and cloud computing contract with the Israeli military.
“You don't get to call yourself the company of peace if you’re the number one cloud provider for Lockheed Martin,” she said. “And you don’t get to call yourself the company of climate action if you’re the number one cloud provider for the fossil fuel industry.”
One of Enabled Emissions’s goals is simply building awareness. Most people know about the direct environmental footprint of AI through data centers’ energy and water use. But AI’s “deliberate role helping oil companies significantly increase fossil fuel expansion—with staggering emissions—remains largely unaddressed,” the website reads.