What will 2022 hold for sustainability? We asked four experts at Microsoft

What's next in the fight against climate change?

Last year was pivotal for efforts to tackle the crisis. A major Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report underscored the urgency of strong measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions, while the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference – also known as COP26 – increased global focus on the issue.

As more and more countries, municipalities and companies pledge to meet net zero carbon emissions, we asked four Microsoft sustainability experts about the policy and technology developments they would like to see in the coming year.

We caught up with: Amy Luers, Global Lead, Sustainability Science; Alberto Arribas Herranz, Europe Lead, Sustainability Science; Brandon Middaugh, Director, Climate Innovation Fund; and Elizabeth Willmott, Carbon Program Lead. Their interviews, conducted by email, have been edited for length.

Amy Luers: I expect this year will mark a step change in how companies, investors and governments account for carbon in their financial and sustainability reports.??

Carbon accounting has long been constrained by poor data, inconsistent accounting standards and limited capacity.

Fortunately, big changes are unfolding that will help to address many of these challenges. These include the advancing of universal standards such as the recently announced International Sustainability Standards Board , as well as the proliferation of new data streams from satellites such as MethaneSAT, and new cloud-based tools that facilitate the mainstreaming of carbon accounting, including those provided in Microsoft’s Cloud for Sustainability.?

Alberto Arribas Herranz: There is a lot of extremely interesting and useful research going on, but there are a couple of areas to highlight.

There are still considerable uncertainties surrounding carbon sinks and sources from anthropogenic land use, such as agriculture and forestry, which represents about 25% of global emissions.

We need improved observing systems to help better decision-making around land use in order to reduce climate change, protect against extreme events such as flooding and protect biodiversity. That includes using sensors and algorithms: Machine learning has an important role to play.

Another interesting area is going to be material science, which can have a very positive impact in carbon reduction – for example, batteries for energy storage, or emissions-free cement. It can also help with carbon removal, including through new materials for efficient carbon capture.

Brandon Middaugh: The most important climate technologies will be those that deliver both deep decarbonization and resilience. We are excited about emerging technologies in distributed energy, clean fuels and engineered carbon removal.

Elizabeth Willmott: I am profoundly excited about the emerging circular economy – turning waste streams, such as carbon emissions and ocean plastics, into useful products. One example of this is the outer shell of the Microsoft Ocean Plastic Mouse , which is made from resin that contains plastic waste removed from oceans and waterways. With ingenuity and creative engineering, we can turn even asbestos into a carbon removal solution. To me, these solutions embody the principle of turning “lemons into lemonade” – exactly the mindset we need in this time of climate crisis.

Luers: At COP26, the focus was on setting new climate targets and finalizing the rulebook for implementing the Paris Agreement. This year must be laser-focused on implementation and accountability.

COP27 , to be hosted by Egypt in November 2022, will be a gauge whether the global pivot to implementation and accountability is truly underway.

Arribas Herranz: The IPCC Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability) and Working Group III (Mitigation of Climate Change) reports will be released in the first half of 2022 and will, no doubt, shape climate policy.

Middaugh: COP26 highlighted the increasing role of the private sector in driving and implementing the climate transition. Climate finance and corporate action will be key drivers of new market creation and the adoption of climate solutions in 2022.

We expect to see action in the financial services industry and in corporate carbon commitments that will pave the way for future climate policies.

Willmott: Wildfires, flooding, extreme heat and other consequences of climate change are likely to increase in frequency and severity. But a silver lining is that when individual citizens, corporations and governments have direct experience with these crises, it can lead us to wake up to the need for bolder climate policy and sustainability solutions.?

Sad as it is, we need to transform this crisis into power – and use it to mobilize meaningful, decisive action.

Luers: This year needs to be about translating climate commitments into action. For this to happen, the talking point must be transformation, because global emissions will not get to net zero by 2050 through incremental changes in efficiency alone.

At Microsoft, we have committed to more than halving our emissions by 2030 and physically removing the rest from the atmosphere. Meeting this goal will require driving transformational changes across our operations and supply chains, and in the carbon removal industry. That is why, at Microsoft, we are investing internally and externally through our $1 billion Climate Innovation Fund .

Arribas Herranz: It will be important to integrate mitigation policies – for example, plans and policies to achieve net zero by 2050 – adaptation strategies such as early-warning systems for extreme events, and climate risk assessments, including physical and transition risks, to better inform decisions and increase resilience.

Middaugh: Net zero commitments are just the first step in the climate transition. We need to develop a common taxonomy of what these commitments mean, a framework for how they are measured and a shared financial commitment to create the markets of the future.

Our investments today are designed to accelerate those markets through early demand and early capital. It is important to invest now to enable the future technologies on which these net zero commitments depend.

Willmott: Climate science tells us that to meet global net zero – a benchmark for avoiding the most serious climate catastrophe – we, as a planet, need to make deep cuts in carbon emissions, and then remove the rest from the atmosphere, including our collective historical emissions.?

To make this aspiration real, corporations need greater clarity and consensus around what net zero corporate claims should signify – otherwise, there is a risk of widespread greenwashing.

Luers: Demand for carbon removal will continue to increase in 2022. The supply of solutions capable of reliably removing and storing carbon is only a tiny fraction of what is needed to reach global net zero emissions by midcentury. Required carbon removal is expected to be as much as 10 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide?per year by 2050.

The challenge is that, while technologies exist to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and permanently store it deep in the Earth, they remain expensive and are not yet ready to deploy at scale. On the other hand, nature-based carbon removal techniques – such as expanding and enhancing forests – are readily available and low cost, but cannot guarantee permanent removal as the sequestered carbon is at risk of release from fire or other disturbances.

Arribas Herranz: I expect the interest and investment in carbon removal to continue for nature-based and technology solutions.?

There is plenty of work to be done. Some of the barriers to reducing costs are on the scientific and technical front, such as improvements in materials and processes. There is also a need to improve the monitoring, verification and security of storage. And there is a need to improve regulatory frameworks that are only just being created.

Middaugh: As the costs of inaction become apparent, carbon removal technologies are poised to become more central to the portfolio of global climate innovations to reach net zero.

Carbon removal is complementary to the carbon reductions that are necessary for greening industry supply chains, and they offer the potential for an insurance policy – albeit an expensive one – that can augment deep decarbonization reductions to help the world reach net zero.

Willmott: We need to double down on building the carbon removal market – both increasing the integrity of nature-based investments and jump-starting new technology investments, such as carbon mineralization [a process that binds carbon in rock ].

Luers: What concerns me most today are the growing disparities and political polarization in society.

As the socioeconomic and political schisms within and among nations grow, the challenge of driving collective action becomes more difficult.

This brings me to optimism. Today, companies increasingly have sustainability at the core of their business plans – both as risks to manage and opportunities for growth.

At Microsoft, we recognize that some of our biggest impacts on advancing sustainability transformations will likely be in helping our customers and partners leverage digital transformation to achieve their sustainability goals.?

Arribas Herranz: Addressing climate change and sustainability challenges is difficult. There is no easy fix, and it is going to require a lot of ingenuity and hard work.

But I am optimistic. Yes, there is lots to do, but there is also a lot that we have already learned. We have lots of tools at our disposal and a large majority of people are willing to act.

Middaugh: We know that this must be the decade of climate action, and specifically that action now has the greatest potential for averting the worst impacts of climate change and environmental degradation.

It will be critical to see national action on climate change this year within the United States to provide the supporting conditions for new market creation and technology adoption.

We are seeing incredibly innovative technologies for decarbonization emerging from the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and this human ingenuity keeps me optimistic about global society’s ability to rise to this challenge.

Willmott: The poet Wendell Berry says, “Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”

Although we face deeply sobering and even frightening environmental degradation, we also have an exponentially increasing network of corporations, governments, nongovernmental organizations and individuals around the world working tirelessly to bend the curve on climate change.

Every new person I meet who is waking up to the urgency of this work fuels my inner resilience and tenacity.

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What do you think 2022 will mean for sustainability? Let us know in the comments.

For more on Microsoft’s work on sustainability, visit Microsoft Sustainability . And follow Microsoft On the Issues on LinkedIn.??