Employees from a climate change advocacy group at Microsoft are sounding the alarm over the company’s new partnership with Chevron and Schlumberger, announced just days before the Global Climate Strike.
Gizmodo first reported about a letter penned Wednesday by Microsoft Workers for Climate Justice in response to Microsoft’s cloud computing deal with the oil industry giants.
“With this kind of news making headlines just 3 days before the Global Climate Strike, it’s no longer possible for us to ignore Microsoft’s complicity in the climate crisis,” the letter reads.
The partnership between Microsoft, Chevron, and Schlumberger “will dramatically accelerate the speed with which we can analyze data to generate new exploration opportunities and bring prospects to development more quickly and with more certainty,” Joseph C. Geagea, executive vice president, technology, projects and services, Chevron, said in a statement.
Microsoft declined to comment.
Employees and companies around the world plan to participate in the climate strike on Friday, three days before the U.N. Climate Summit.
Microsoft workers will be joining millions of people around the world by participating in the youth-led Global Climate Strike on September 20th to demand an end to the age of fossil fuels. Microsoft workers, join us by pledging to take action at https://t.co/KL3e0xKyYR
— Microsoft Workers 4 Good (@MsWorkers4) September 9, 2019
Microsoft, which partners with other companies in the oil and gas industry, unveiled sweeping new sustainability goals earlier this year, including accelerating its timeline to move all data centers to renewable energy. It plans to shift its data centers to 100 percent renewable energy in the next decade and 75 percent by 2023. Microsoft will also join the Climate Leadership Council and advocate for carbon pricing nationwide as part of the new sustainability push.