Google falls short of key climate target, cites AI electricity needs

Three years ago, Google set out an ambitious plan to tackle climate change by becoming “net zero,” meaning it would release no more climate-altering gases into the air than it removes by 2030.

But a report from the company on Tuesday shows it is far from reaching that goal.

Instead of decreasing, its emissions grew by 13% in 2023 compared to the previous year. Compared to the base year 2019, emissions increased by 48%.

Google cited artificial intelligence and demand it places on data centerswhich require enormous amounts of electricity, for last year’s growth.

Producing this electricity by burning coal or natural gas emits greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide and methane, which warm the planet, bringing most extreme weather.

The company has one of the most significant climate commitments in the industry and has been seen as a leader.

Lisa Sachs, director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, said Google should do more to partner with cleaner companies and invest in the power grid.

“The reality is that we are far behind what we could be doing now with the technology we have, with the resources we have, in terms of moving forward with the transition,” she said.

Google’s chief sustainability officer, Kate Brandt, told the Associated Press: “Achieving this net-zero goal by 2030 is an extremely ambitious goal.

“We know this will not be easy and that our approach will need to continue to evolve,” Brandt added, “and will require us to navigate many uncertainties, including this uncertainty around the future of AI’s environmental impacts.”

Some experts say that rapidly expanding data centers needed to power AI threaten the entire transition to clean electricity, an important part of addressing climate change. This is because a new data center can delay the closure of a plant that burns fossil fuel or request that a new one be built. Data centers are not only energy intensive, they also require high voltage transmission lines it’s needed significant amounts of water to look cool. They are also noisy.

They are often built where electricity is cheapest and not where renewable energy, such as wind and solar, is an essential source of energy.

Global data center and AI electricity demand could bend by 2026, according to the International Energy Agency.

Other sustainability plans by large technology companies are also challenged by the proliferation of data centers. They caused Microsoft’s emissions to grow 29% above the 2020 baseline, the company said in a statement. environmental sustainability report in May.

Tech companies argue that AI, including tools like ChatGPT, is not only partially causing climate change, but also helping to address it.

In Google’s case, that could mean using data to predict future floods or make traffic more efficient to save gas.

Amanda Smith, senior scientist at the nonprofit Project Drawdown, said those who use AI – both large companies and individuals who just create memes – need to do so responsibly, meaning only use the energy when it benefits the public. society.

“It’s up to us as humans to look at what we’re doing with this and question why we’re doing it,” Smith added. “When it’s worth it, we can ensure that these demands will be met by clean energy sources.”

Google’s emissions grew last year in part because the company used more energy; 25,910 more gigawatt hours, an increase from the previous year and more than double the hours of energy consumed just four years earlier. A gigawatt-hour is approximately the energy that a plant serving hundreds of thousands of homes produces in one hour.

On the positive side, as Google’s consumption grows, so does its use of renewable energy.

The company said in 2020 that it would meet its enormous need for electricity using only clean energy, every hour, every day, by 2030, around the world. Last year, Google says, there was an average of 64% carbon-free energy in its data centers and offices around the world. The company says your data centers they are, on average, 1.8 times more energy efficient than others in the industry.

Columbia University’s Sachs gave Google credit for its ambition and honesty, but said he hopes “Google will join us in a more rigorous conversation about how to accelerate ‘clean energy in the midst of the climate crisis’ so that it doesn’t There will be a lot worse before it starts to get better.”

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Alexa St. John is a climate solutions reporter for the Associated Press. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @alexa_stjohn. Contact her at ast.john@ap.org.

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