Current:Home > ScamsGoogle falling short of important climate target, cites electricity needs of AI -Secure Horizon Growth
Google falling short of important climate target, cites electricity needs of AI
Surpassing Quant Think Tank Center View
Date:2025-04-10 20:55:57
Three years ago, Google set an ambitious plan to address climate change by going “net zero,” meaning it would release no more climate-changing gases into the air than it removes, by 2030.
But a report from the company Tuesday shows it is nowhere near meeting that goal.
Rather than declining, its emissions grew 13% in 2023 over the year before. Compared to its baseline year of 2019, emissions have soared 48%.
Google cited artificial intelligence and the demand it puts on data centers, which require massive amounts of electricity, for last year’s growth.
Making that electricity by burning coal or natural gas emits greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide and methane, which warm the planet, bringing more extreme weather.
The company has one of the most significant climate commitments in industry and has been seen as a leader.
Lisa Sachs, director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, said Google should be doing more to partner with cleaner companies and invest in the electrical grid.
“The reality is that we are far behind what we could already be doing now with the technology that we have, with the resources that we have, in terms of advancing the transition,” she said.
Google Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt told The Associated Press, “Reaching this net zero goal by 2030, this is an extremely ambitious goal.
“We know this is not going to be easy and that our approach will need to continue to evolve,” Brandt added, “and it will require us to navigate a lot of uncertainty, including this uncertainty around the future of AI’s environmental impacts.”
Some experts say the rapidly expanding data centers needed to power AI threaten the entire transition to clean electricity, an important part of addressing climate change. That’s because a new data center can delay the closure of a power plant that burns fossil fuel or prompt a new one to be built. Data centers are not only energy-intensive, they require high voltage transmission lines and need significant amounts of water to stay cool. They are also noisy.
They often are built where electricity is cheapest, not where renewables, such as wind and solar, are a key source of energy.
Global data center and AI electricity demand could double by 2026, according to the International Energy Agency.
Other major tech company sustainability plans are also challenged by the proliferation of data centers. They caused Microsoft’s emissions to grow 29% above its 2020 baseline, the company said in an environmental sustainability report in May.
Tech companies make the case that AI, including tools such as ChatGPT, is not only partially causing climate change, it’s also helping to address it.
In the case of Google, that could mean using data to predict future flooding, or making traffic flow more efficiently, to save gasoline.
Amanda Smith, senior scientist at the climate nonprofit Project Drawdown, said those who use AI — both large companies and individuals just making memes — need to do so responsibly, meaning using the energy only when it benefits society.
“It’s up to us as humans to watch what we’re doing with it and to question why we’re doing that,” Smith added. “When it’s worth it, we can make sure that those demands are going to be met by clean sources of power.”
Google’s emissions grew last year in part because the company used more energy; 25,910 gigawatt-hours more, an increase from the year before and more than double the hours of energy consumed just four years earlier. A gigawatt-hour is roughly the energy that a power plant serving several hundred thousand households puts out in one hour.
On the positive side, as Google’s consumption grows, so has its use of renewable power.
The company said in 2020 it would meet its massive need for electricity using only clean energy every hour of every day by 2030, all over the world. Last year, Google says, it saw an average of 64% carbon-free energy for its data centers and offices around the globe. The company says its data centers are, on average, 1.8 times as energy efficient as others in the industry.
Sachs, at Columbia University, credited Google for its ambition and honesty, but said she hopes “that Google would join us in a more rigorous conversation about how to accelerate” clean energy amid the climate crisis, “so that it doesn’t get much worse before it starts getting better.”
___
Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate solutions reporter. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at [email protected].
___
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
veryGood! (56)
Related
- McConnell absent from Senate on Thursday as he recovers from fall in Capitol
- Caitlin Clark passes Pistol Pete Maravich's record to become all-time NCAA Division I scoring leader
- New Mexico governor signs bill that bans some guns at polls and extends waiting period to 7 days
- Search continues for autistic Tennessee teen who walked away from home a week ago
- Gen. Mark Milley's security detail and security clearance revoked, Pentagon says
- New Mexico governor signs bill that bans some guns at polls and extends waiting period to 7 days
- History-rich Pac-12 marks the end of an era as the conference basketball tournaments take place
- JetBlue, Spirit ending $3.8B deal to combine after court ruling blocked their merger
- NHL in ASL returns, delivering American Sign Language analysis for Deaf community at Winter Classic
- Driver accused of killing bride in golf cart crash on wedding day is now free on bond
Ranking
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Triathlon
- What is Super Tuesday and how does tomorrow's voting work?
- Alabama Supreme Court IVF Ruling Renews Focus on Plastics, Chemical Exposure and Infertility
- NLRB official denies Dartmouth request to reopen basketball union case. Players to vote Tuesday
- Jorge Ramos reveals his final day with 'Noticiero Univision': 'It's been quite a ride'
- Ashley Tisdale Reveals How Her 2-Year-Old Daughter Was Mistakenly Taught the F-Word
- Mikaela Shiffrin preparing to return from downhill crash at slalom race in Sweden this weekend
- More than 10,000 players will be in EA Sports College Football 25 video game
Recommendation
McConnell absent from Senate on Thursday as he recovers from fall in Capitol
Mother charged with murder after 4-year-old twin sons found dead in North Carolina home
Full transcript of Face the Nation, March 3, 2024
The Supreme Court’s Social Media Case Has Big Implications for Climate Disinformation, Experts Warn
IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
Minnesota is poised to give school resource officers clearer authority to use force
ATF director Steven Dettelbach says we have to work within that system since there is no federal gun registry
NFL free agency: When does it start? What is legal tampering period?