As AI booms, Google’s having a hard time slashing its emissions

Three years ago, Google set an ambitious plan to address climate change by going “net zero,” meaning it would release no more climate-changing gasses into the air than it removes, by 2030. But a report from the company on July 2 shows it is nowhere near meeting those goals. 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. 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 with its need for electricity can delay the closure of a power plant that burns fossil fuel. Data centers are energy-intensive, require high-voltage transmission lines, and need significant amounts of water to stay cool. They are also noisy. The installations often go in where electricity is cheapest, not always 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. Data centers are also challenging the sustainability pledges of other major tech companies. Microsoft said data centers caused its emissions, in aggregate, to grow 29.1% from its 2020 baseline in its May environmental sustainability report. 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, it could mean using data to predict future flooding or making traffic flow more efficiently, to save gasoline. “It’s just important to understand AI can be a force that increases emissions, and AI can be a force that decreases emissions,” says Amanda Smith, senior scientist at climate nonprofit Project Drawdown. Smith says those using AI—both large companies and individuals just making memes—need to do so responsibly, meaning using the energy when it benefits society. This article was provided by The Associated Press.