Google misses key climate goal, citing AI power demands

Three years ago, Google set out an ambitious plan to tackle climate change, committing to a net-zero goal of not emitting more climate-changing gases into the atmosphere than it removes by 2030.

But a report released by the company on Tuesday said it's far from reaching that goal.

Instead of decreasing, emissions are projected to increase by 13% in 2023 compared to the previous year. Compared to the base year of 2019, emissions have soared by 48%.

Google cited artificial intelligence and the demand it places on power-hungry data centers as the reason for its growth last year.

Burning coal or natural gas to generate electricity emits greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which warm the planet and cause extreme weather.

The company is a recognized leader in implementing some of the most significant climate change initiatives in its industry.

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

The reality is, she said, that in terms of moving forward with the transition, we are far behind what we can do with the technology and resources we currently have.

“Achieving a net-zero goal by 2030 is a very ambitious goal,” Google's chief sustainability officer Kate Brandt told The Associated Press.

“We know this won't be easy, and our approach will need to continue to evolve and navigate many uncertainties, including uncertainty about the future of AI's environmental impact,” Brandt added.

Some experts say the rapid expansion of data centers needed to run AI threatens the entire transition to clean electricity, a key part of the climate change effort. New data centers could delay the retirement of fossil-fuel-burning power plants or encourage the construction of new ones. Data centers are not only energy-intensive, they require high-voltage power lines and lots of water for cooling. They're also noisy.

These plants are often built where electricity prices are lowest, rather than in places where renewable energy sources like wind and solar are the primary energy source.

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

The sustainability plans of other big tech companies have also been challenged by data center growth: Microsoft said in its May environmental sustainability report that data center growth had increased the company's emissions by 29% from a 2020 baseline.

Tech companies argue that AI, including tools like ChatGPT, not only partially causes climate change but also helps solve it.

For Google, that could mean using data to predict future floods or streamline traffic flow to save gas.

Amanda Smith, a senior scientist at Project Drawdown, a climate nonprofit, said that anyone using AI, whether it's a large company or an individual creating a meme, needed to do so responsibly and only use energy when it benefited society.

Smith added, “It's our responsibility as humans to look at how we're using it and ask why we're doing it. If there's value, we can make sure those demands are met by clean energy sources.”

Google's emissions increased last year in part because the company used more energy: Emissions increased by 25,910 gigawatt-hours, up from the previous year and more than double the amount of energy it used just four years earlier. One gigawatt-hour is roughly the amount of energy released in one hour by a power plant that powers hundreds of thousands of homes.

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

In 2020, the company announced that it would use only clean energy to meet its massive electricity needs every hour of every day around the world by 2030. Google said that its data centers and offices around the world used an average of 64% carbon-free energy last year. The company says that its data centers are, on average, 1.8 times more energy efficient than other companies in the industry.

Columbia's Sachs said he applauded Google's ambition and sincerity, but hoped the company would join more rigorous discussions about how to accelerate clean energy amid the climate crisis and start making improvements before the situation gets worse.

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Alexa St. John is a climate solutions reporter for The Associated Press. Follow her on Twitter: @alexa_stjohn. Contact [email protected].

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Associated Press climate and environment coverage receives financial support from several private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. See AP's philanthropic engagement criteria, a list of supporters and funded areas of coverage on AP.org.

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