Around the globe, there is growing concern about climate change, leading countries and global corporations to focus on reducing their carbon emissions. However, in this era of artificial intelligence, alarming news has emerged from one of the tech giants. Google's greenhouse gas emissions increased by almost 50 percent over the last five years, primarily due to the energy consumption of data centres needed to support artificial intelligence.
This information comes from Google's 2024 Environmental Report, which was released on Tuesday. The report, released annually by Google, tracks the company's efforts to achieve its goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2030.
In 2023, Google reportedly released 14.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, which was 48 percent higher than in 2019 and 13 percent higher than the previous year. According to the report, Google stated that the increase was primarily due to rises in data centre energy consumption and supply chain emissions.
Google also mentioned in the report that integrating AI into their products may make it challenging to reduce emissions due to the expected increases in energy demands associated with technical infrastructure investment.
Last month, Microsoft reported that its greenhouse gas emissions had risen by nearly 30 percent since 2020 due to the construction of data centers. The company has also pledged to go "carbon negative" by the end of this decade.
Google’s report also stated that its data centres were using significantly more water to stay cool due to expanded AI workloads. In 2023, Google's data centres consumed 17 percent more water than the previous year.
The report stated that as their business and industry continue to evolve, they expect their total GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions to rise before dropping toward their absolute emissions reduction target. It was noted that predicting the future environmental impact of AI is complex and evolving, and historical trends may not fully capture AI’s future trajectory. Additionally, the report mentioned that as AI is deeply integrated across their product portfolio, the distinction between AI and other workloads will not be meaningful.
