微软承诺从大气中清除所有它曾经排放的碳

微软承诺从大气中清除所有它曾经排放的碳

Microsoft has announced an ambitious plan to not just reduce its carbon emissions, but to actively remove carbon from the atmosphere — going "carbon negative" by 2030.

微软宣布了一项雄心勃勃的计划，不仅要减少碳排放，还要积极消除大气中的碳——到2030年实现“负碳”。

And by 2050. the tech giant pledges it will "remove from the environment all the carbon the company has emitted either directly or by electrical consumption since it was founded in 1975."

这家科技巨头承诺，到2050年，它将“从环境中清除公司自1975年成立以来直接排放或用电排放的所有碳。”

As the world faces the increasingly dire effects of climate change, which is caused by greenhouse gas emissions, a growing number of companies have pledged to reduce their carbon emissions.

随着全球面临由温室气体排放导致的气候变化带来的日益严重的影响，越来越多的公司承诺减少碳排放。

It's much rarer to pledge to go carbon negative; in that, Microsoft is joining Ikea and a handful of much smaller companies.

承诺实现碳负增长要难得多;在这方面，微软加入了宜家和一些小得多的公司的行列。

And vowing to remove all the emissions the company ever released is even more unusual.

而发誓要消除该公司所排放的所有气体更是不同寻常。

"I've never seen that before," says Cynthia Cummis, the director of private sector climate mitigation at the World Resources Institute.

“我以前从未见过这种情况，”世界资源研究所私营部门减缓气候变化主管辛西娅•卡米斯表示。

Cummis says that Microsoft's commitment is also noteworthy for its level of detail.

卡米斯说，微软的承诺也因其细节水平而值得注意。

The company already pushes employees to consider emissions while making business decisions. Microsoft says it will adapt that policy to reduce emissions not just within the company but also across its entire supply chain. It says it will cut its own emissions to "near zero" by using 100% renewable energy and relying on electric vehicles.

该公司已经要求员工在做商业决策时考虑排放问题。微软表示，它将调整这一政策，不仅在公司内部，而且在整个供应链范围内减少排放。该公司表示，将通过使用100%的可再生能源和依赖电动汽车，将自己的排放量削减至“接近零”。

"They're going to decarbonize at a very fast rate and then [use] carbon removals to balance out those remaining emissions," Cummis says. "That's what's in line with science and what we want to see all companies doing."

“他们将以非常快的速度脱碳，然后(利用)碳去除量来平衡那些剩余的排放，”卡米斯说。“这符合科学，也是我们希望看到所有公司都这么做的。”

A climate change activist group, called Microsoft's announcement "an important step in the right direction."

一个气候变化活动组织称，微软的声明是“朝着正确方向迈出的重要一步”。

The group added: "Who will follow next?"

该组织补充道:“谁将是下一个?”

Microsoft, which is one of NPR's sponsors, says it has been "carbon neutral" for years by reducing emissions and paying for offsets for what remained.

作为美国国家公共电台的赞助商之一，微软表示，多年来，它一直通过减少排放和为剩余部分支付补偿来保持“碳中性”。

But those offsets, while they may have kept new carbon dioxide from being released, did not usually involve taking existing emissions out of the atmosphere. The company's new policy will place a much stronger emphasis on such carbon removal.

但是，这些补偿虽然可能阻止了新的二氧化碳的排放，但通常并不涉及将现有的排放从大气中去除。该公司的新政策将更加强调这种碳减排。

"Neutral is not enough to address the world's needs," Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote in the announcement Thursday.

微软总裁布拉德·史密斯在周四的声明中写道:“保持中立不足以满足世界的需求。”

Planting trees is one way to actively remove carbon from the atmosphere. Higher-tech strategies are also being researched, including pulling carbon out of the atmosphere and putting it in storage.

植树是积极消除大气中碳的一种方式。更高技术的策略也在研究中，包括从大气中提取碳并将其储存起来。

"It's not a new technology," says David Goldberg, a Columbia University research professor who studies carbon removal and storage. Small-scale installations are active now. But "scaling that technology up to where it could be very, very effective and viable for a large-scale capture and storage ... that's earlier in the development phase," Goldberg says.

“这不是一项新技术，”哥伦比亚大学研究碳去除和储存的教授大卫高博说。小规模的安装现在正在进行中。但是“将这项技术扩展到非常、非常有效和可行的地方，用于大规模的捕获和存储……那是在开发阶段的早期，”高博说。

Microsoft is pledging to create a $1 billion fund to invest in developing such technology, similar to other climate-focused funds (including one spearheaded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates).

微软承诺建立一个10亿美元的基金来投资开发这类技术，类似于其他关注气候变化的基金(包括由微软联合创始人比尔·盖茨牵头的基金)。