Google has reported a significant increase in its greenhouse gas emissions, which have grown by nearly half over the past four years. The company’s 2023 environmental report reveals that Google emitted 14.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide last year, marking a 48% increase since 2019 and a 13% year-on-year spike.
This data underscores the concerns raised by climate action groups, who have long warned that the rise of AI could undermine Big Tech’s climate goals. Google, which had aimed to cut its toxic gas emissions by half by 2030, now faces the reality of a 40% increase in emissions since 2019. To put this into perspective, Google’s 2023 emissions are equivalent to the annual emissions of about 38 gas-fired power plants.
The 2024 Environmental Report from Google attributes the rise in emissions to the growing energy demands of developing and integrating AI technologies. Despite the challenges, Google defended the use of AI for mitigating disasters and addressing climate change through predictive modeling.
Blame it on Generative AI and Data Centers
The primary drivers of this emissions increase are the higher energy consumption in data centers and supply chain emissions. As AI becomes more integrated into Google’s products, the energy demands from the intensive computing requirements of AI, coupled with the emissions from expanding technical infrastructure, pose significant challenges.
Industry experts have highlighted the substantial power requirements for computing requests from generative AI chatbots. While Big Tech companies like Google and Microsoft have promised solutions to reduce energy and emissions during AI model training, the reality appears more complex. Google’s report acknowledges the increased energy demands and notes the additional water usage by data centers to stay cool, which rose by 17% in 2023 compared to the previous year, amounting to over 6.1 billion liters.
Google’s Response and Future Plans
Google’s report suggests that despite the rising emissions, the company remains committed to its climate goals. However, it offers few specifics on how it plans to achieve a downward shift in emissions. The report mentions that as the industry evolves, greenhouse gas emissions might rise before eventually decreasing.
The environmental impact of AI’s growth is significant, with predictions indicating that AI could dramatically increase global power demand. Data centers currently use about 1% of the world’s electricity, but the AI boom could cause this to rise tenfold within two years. This potential increase could necessitate the prolonged use of coal and gas power plants, undermining recent climate change efforts.
In comparison, Microsoft, which pledged to go “carbon negative” by 2030, has also reported a 30% spike in greenhouse gas emissions since 2020 due to the construction of data centers.
As the environmental footprint of AI continues to grow, the challenge for tech giants like Google will be to balance technological advancement with sustainable practices and significant reductions in emissions.
