Not long ago, Google published a report revealing a 13% year-on-year increase in its CO2 emissions for 2023, marking a 48% rise compared to 2019. Despite this, Google’s chief scientist, Jeff Dean, stated that AI is wrongly blamed for the company’s rising carbon emissions. He emphasized the company’s commitment to completely switch to clean energy by 2030, according to The Register.
The primary reasons for the emissions increase include higher data center energy consumption and the company’s supply chain. However, the public often blames AI for rising emissions, partly due to Google’s rapid expansion of its AI systems in recent years. In an interview with Fortune, Dean clarified that AI only accounts for a small portion of computing and is not the primary cause of increased data center emissions. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that the segment is growing rapidly.
Google’s Clean Energy Goals
Dean confirmed that Google remains committed to its goal of transitioning to 100% clean energy by 2030. He noted that “progress in this matter is not linear,” with some carbon-free energy supply projects expected to succeed only years after their initiation.
Google’s ESG report highlighted a 37% increase in Scope 2 emissions (from energy suppliers), which accounted for 24% of the company’s total carbon emissions in 2023. Despite this, Google claims that all its energy needs are fully offset by the purchase of renewable energy sources. The company uses its own methodology for calculating Scope 2 emissions, differing from the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) methodology.
The report also indicated that while overall data center consumption grew by 17% to 3.5 TWh in 2023, the cloud and search business segments maintained an average carbon-free energy usage of 64%. How Google plans to achieve 100% carbon-free energy usage, given its growing energy demands and the slower introduction of new green sources, remains unspecified.
Industry-Wide Challenges
Google is not alone in facing challenges with environmental goals, reminds NIXsolutions. Microsoft reported a 29.1% rise in CO2 emissions in 2020, attributing it to the need for more data centers to meet the demand for cloud and AI services. In contrast, AWS managed to reduce its emissions, though there are also questions about the accuracy of its emissions calculations.
We’ll keep you updated on Google’s progress towards its clean energy goals and any developments in the tech industry’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions.