We’re holding Big Tech accountable for its role in fossil fuel production

Big Tech is enabling the Fossil Fuel industry

Advanced technologies help cut costs and boost yields by up to 15%, “expand production,” “generate new exploration opportunities,” accelerate “extracted and refined” hydrocarbons, and make “the future of oil and gas exploration and production brighter than ever.”

  • Tech Giants - Microsoft, Google and Amazon help big oil profit from climate destruction despite the biggest public commitments


    — Greenpeace, Oil in the Cloud (2020)

  • Microsoft Azure is “at the heart” of unlocking new fossil fuel reserves, optimizing production, and reducing costs


    — Microsoft engineer, LinkedIn (2023)

  • Digital technologies can increase technically recoverable oil and gas resources by around 5% globally.

    - IEA, 2017

  • One deal with ExxonMobil to accelerate production increases global emissions by 300% of Microsoft’s 2021 carbon removal.


    - Microsoft News Center, 2019

  • XTO Energy depends on Microsoft Azure to maximize oil extraction across thousands of new wells and build dozens of new facilities


    - President of XTO Energy, ExxonMobil Subsidiary, Microsoft 2021

  • Big Tech Helps Big Oil Pump More, Belying Climate Pledges by helping prolong the fossil-fuel age.


    - Bloomberg

  • AI is revitalizing the fossil fuels industry, and big tech has nothing to say for itself


    - Brian Merchant, Blood in the Machine

  • Halliburton and Microsoft collaborate for more efficient oil and gas production, bringing more fossil fuels to market


    - CVP of Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 2017

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) is helping oil and gas companies to enhance exploration and increase production


    - AWS for Energy and Utilities, 2024

  • Google greenwashes partnership with Saudi Aramco, continuing to improve oil and gas extraction


    — The Intercept, 2023

  • Chevron is leveraging Microsoft’s AI to improve extraction rates, increasing fossil fuels produced


    — Chevron, 2017

  • BP’s move to AWS’s cloud boosts oil production efficiency while claiming to support sustainability


    — VICE

  • Big Tech is forging a lucrative partnership with Big Oil, building a new carbon cloud that just might kill us all.

    — Former Microsoft Engineer (LogicMag)

  • Heeding the digital call to action in oil and gas with a new digital strategy transforms a national oil company’s operations


    - Accenture

  • Google Halts building custom AI or machine learning tools for oil extraction


    — Forbes

  • Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace Campaign for a Breakup Between Big Tech and Big Oil (2020)


    — Inside Climate News

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) could be making $9.6 billion annually from the oil and gas industry alone — about 10% of AWS revenue.

    — Amazon Unsustainability Report

  • Google, Microsoft, and Big Tech Are Automating Oil companies and fueling the Climate Crisis


    — Artificial Intelligence (2019)

  • Global AI software spending in the oil and gas market is forecast to increase 24.3% in 2024 to $1.5 billion and reach $2.9 billion by 2027


    — Gartner, 2024

  • Applying AI in oil and gas

    92% of oil and gas companies are either currently investing in AI or plan to in the next two years.

    — EY (Survey removed from website, 2023)

  • Some of the world’s richest oil and gas companies are using AI to accelerate fossil fuel extraction.

    - Global Witness

ENABLED EMISSIONS

Fossil fuel companies rely on AI, IoT, and cloud computing as a “game changer” to find and extract more oil and gas, more efficiently & cheaply.

This drives massive enabled emissions—additional emissions resulting from increased fossil fuel production only made possible by advanced tech.

It’s bigger than datacenters 

The use of AI overshadows the direct impacts of AI operations. Two projects alone - of many - enable emissions equal to 334% of Microsoft’s entire FY23 carbon footprint - including its datacenters. This starkly contrasts with the sustainability pledges of hyperscalers like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.

We’re working to truly align technology with climate science

  • Advocating

    Pushing for smart policies, market design, governance, and incentives

  • Educating

    Exposing gaps in carbon accounting, regulations, and sustainability claims

  • Mobilizing

    Uniting stakeholders to amplify demands for accountability and climate action.

Our work

  • Microsoft employees spent years fighting the tech giant’s oil ties

    Inside the worker-led effort to get the world's most valuable company to stop helping the oil and gas industry drill.

    Read Grist article

  • Microsoft’s Hypocrisy on AI


    Can artificial intelligence really enrich fossil-fuel companies and fight climate change at the same time? The tech giant says yes.

    Read Atlantic article

  • I loved my job at Microsoft, but resigned on principle. Here’s why

    Microsoft sustainability leader resigns, alleging the company aids fossil fuel expansion while touting climate goals.

    Read Fortune article

  • We're wrong about AI


    An untold story of broken promises, hard truths, and corporate hypocrisy at the intersection of AI, climate, and ethics.

    View Seattle Ignite talk

  • Microsoft Shareholder Resolution AGM Presentation

    Will Alpine urges Microsoft’s board to evaluate and report on the risks of advanced technology to support fossil fuel expansion.

    View shareholder presentation
  • microsoft energy principles

    Microsoft's Energy Principles


    Internal advocacy led to the release of Microsoft’s Energy Principles - an important first step - despite significant loopholes.

    Read Microsoft press release

  • The Microsoft Azure Dilemma w/ Will & Holly Alpine

    Will Alpine & Holly Alpine share their advocacy story around the ethical challenges of enabling fossil fuel production.

    Listen to the podcast

  • Report on the Risks of Producing AI Technology for Fossil Fuels


    Shareholders call for Microsoft to report on risks of using advanced technology to support fossil fuel expansion.

    Read shareholder resolution

  • Net0++: Microsoft's greenwashing w/ Holly Alpine


    Computer Says Maybe podcast featuring Holly Alpine, discussing the topic of enabled emissions.

    Listen to the podcast

Our Allies

  • "We need to consider not just AI’s direct environmental impacts but also its indirect "enabled" emissions. Its continued use in fossil fuel expansion poses a systemic threat to climate goals - we need urgent accountability."


    SASHA LUCCIONI
    AI & Climate Lead, Hugging Face
    Featured on TIME AI 100 (2024) and BBC 100 Women (2024)

  • "If corporations say they care about climate change, they have to care about it in every area, not just where convenient. Deploying AI to develop fossil fuels undermines the credibility and progress of big tech."


    AUDEN SCHENDLER
    SVP Sustainability, Aspen One
    Author of "Terrible Beauty: Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering our Soul" (Nov. 2024)

  • "Corporate climate pledges mean little without action to stop high-carbon activities. Employees have proven their power to push for change—we now need policies that hold companies accountable for the harm they enable."

    DEBORAH MCNAMARA
    Executive Director, ClimateVoice

OUR STORY

We are leaders in AI, ethics, energy, and sustainability, with decades of experience in tech + climate. Our advocacy led to Microsoft’s Energy Principles — an initial policy step, despite significant loopholes. In 2024, we left the company to push externally for accountability and systemic climate action.

Our team

  • Holly is a recognized sustainability leader with a decade of experience at Microsoft, where she founded and led both the company's global Community Environmental Sustainability program as well as the Employee Engagement program, supporting 10,000 employees across 36 global chapters. Holly is on the Board of Directors for American Forests and Zero Waste Washington and is an active plant-based mountain athlete.

  • Will is an AI product management leader working at the intersection of technology, policy, and climate. At Microsoft, he led the development of Responsible AI platform features, co-founded Green Software Engineering initiatives like the open-source Carbon Aware SDK, and co-authored Microsoft’s Accelerating Sustainability with AI playbook.Outside of work, he finds inspiration in nature, exploring the rugged landscapes of the Pacific Northwest.

  • Drew works for Planet Earth but provides consulting services for employee engagement through the Climate Leadership Collective, helping organizations make sustainability part of everybody's job. He is a founding member of the Enabled Emissions campaign.

"Holly and Will Alpine are innovative, fearless leaders driving meaningful change in the fight for a sustainable future. Through the enabled emissions campaign, they’ve spotlighted the critical – and largely unaddressed – role of advanced technologies in enabling fossil fuel production, holding tech companies accountable in ways few others are. Their bold vision, strategic approach, and unwavering commitment set a powerful example for the climate movement and inspire action toward a more just and sustainable world.”

-Bill Weihl, Founder and Chief Strategic Advisor at ClimateVoice, Former Director of Sustainability at Facebook & Google

FAQ

  • Enabled emissions are the additional greenhouse gas emissions that occur when advanced technologies—like AI, IoT, and cloud computing—make fossil fuel extraction and production economically or technically feasible.

    These emissions don’t appear in tech companies’ carbon footprints—but they’re real, and potentially massive.

  • No! The biggest climate risk from AI isn’t its energy use—it’s how it’s used. While AI-driven demand is pushing data center electricity consumption higher (about 1.5% of global electricity in 2024, projected to reach nearly 3% by 2030), the emissions impact is still relatively small compared to fossil fuels, which drive over 90% of global CO₂ emissions. The real concern is when AI is used to expand fossil fuel production, locking in long-term emissions.

  • AI is often promoted as a climate solution, with promises of optimizing clean energy and managing power grids—but most of these benefits remain speculative or limited in scale. Meanwhile, the downsides are concrete and accelerating: soaring emissions from energy-intensive AI datacenters, increased fossil fuel extraction, and rebound effects that offset efficiency gains. As the IEA puts it, emissions reductions from digital technologies “are not on track to materialise without regulatory and other interventions.”

  • Enabled emissions aren’t currently captured in corporate climate reports. Tech companies aren’t accountable for how their tools are used, and current Scope 3 rules don’t cover the downstream impacts of technology.

  • Only with guardrails. Jevons Paradox shows that improving efficiency can lead to increased overall resource use. Without regulation, tech-driven efficiency in oil and gas often leads to more drilling, not less.

  • Currently, none. No national or international policy currently regulates the use of AI, cloud, or IoT in high-carbon sectors like oil and gas.

  • Policy wins are essential: for example, the EU AI Act could be expanded to classify fossil-fuel-enabling AI as “high risk.”

  • This isn’t about stepping back—it’s about stepping up. Tech companies can lead by accelerating the clean energy transition, not locking in fossil fuel dependence. Using “competition” to justify harmful partnerships is short-sighted; real leadership means choosing a livable future over short-term gain.

  • Yes, but most are vague or misleading. Without enforceable standards or interim targets, they’re “virtually meaningless” (Carbon Tracker, 2023). The IIGCC standard is promising—but voluntary.

  • The latest data of cloud market share by fossil fuel digitalization contracts shows: Microsoft (~57%) Amazon Web Services, (~17%) Google Cloud (~13%) Others (~13%).

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