Google: Greenhouse gas emissions increased by 13 percent last year due to AI

Due to the continuous expansion of data centers, Google has recorded a sharp rise in greenhouse gas emissions over the last five years. This jeopardizes the company's declared goal of being climate-neutral by 2030.

Google's latest environmental report shows that its own pollution amounted to 14.3 million tons of CO₂ in 2023. This is 13 percent more than in the previous year and a full 48 percent more than in 2019.

Google also states that energy-related emissions increased by 37 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year and currently account for a quarter of its total emissions. Supply chain emissions also increased by 8 percent - accounting for the largest share of total emissions at 75 percent.

Google: emissions will continue to rise

According to the report, it can be assumed that these figures "will continue to rise in the near future". This is primarily due to the expansion and operation of Google's AI systems. Kate Brandt, the company's Chief Sustainability Officer, emphasized in a statement that Google nevertheless remains committed to its declared goal of climate neutrality.

The plan is for Google to reduce its direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2030 and to use carbon-free energy in all the networks it operates by then. However, Brandt said that this plan is now "extremely ambitious".

Negative trend also at Microsoft and Amazon

Google is not alone in this development: in May, it was revealed that Microsoft's greenhouse gas emissions have risen by around 40 percent in the last three years. This is also due to investments in AI accelerators in Redmond. Although Microsoft largely uses green electricity for the resulting increase in power requirements, it recently concluded large contracts with nuclear power suppliers in the USA - as did Google and Amazon.

The trend for AI-oriented companies over the next few years is therefore moving away from environmental protection. However, Google and Microsoft are linking this to the promise that AI will contribute to developing more environmentally friendly solutions for their own operations and for tech companies as a whole in the long term.

Google's new environmental report provides the right data for this: AI-powered fuel-saving routing has already reduced 2.9 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of taking 650,000 cars off the road. Other documented successes include achieving a share of at least 90 percent carbon-free energy in 10 network regions and completely plastic-free production of packaging for the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro.

(mack)