Google is falling so far short of its climate goals that in some cases it's going backwards. In the company's 2024 environment report, which came out this week, Google was forced to admit that its greenhouse gas emissions have increased 48 percent since 2019 — in large part due to energy demand from AI. because.
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The Silicon Valley tech giant, which is aiming for net zero emissions by 2030, acknowledged that the jump in its emissions was “primarily due to increased data center energy consumption.” In the past year alone, Google's data centers, which power its online services around the world, saw a 17 percent increase in electricity consumption.
With the AI revolution still in its infancy and energy demand expected to continue to rise, even Google — which is actively promoting and deploying its Gemini AI systems — is questioning whether it can actually can expect to meet its target. “As we further integrate AI into our products, it may be difficult to reduce emissions,” the company said in its report.
Google is far from the only company struggling on this front. Microsoft also saw an increase in emissions last year due to energy demand from AI. As more companies, from newcomers to the tech scene like ChatGPT maker OpenAI and powerhouses like Apple, which has long boasted its environmental credentials, add to its AI products, so will energy. Demand will also increase.
Which raises the question for people who use technology: Is AI a neat technology that we should integrate into our lives? And with AI routinely misused, tricked and falling short of our expectations, is it worth over-relying on a technology that is exacerbating the climate crisis?
Debate has raged on the internet about AI posing an existential threat to humans, largely thanks to advances in the technology behind generative AI, ChatGPT, Gemini, Dall-E, Perplexity and other chatbot systems. But these debates often center on philosophical, sometimes esoteric, questions surrounding the concept of intelligence. In contrast, the climate crisis is an immediate threat to human security in the form of heat waves, wildfires, droughts and floods that affect our homes, health and livelihoods.
Google and other big tech companies have set themselves some lofty environmental goals — and rightfully so. Crunching the world's endless data requires a lot of energy. But with the effects of the climate crisis reflected in our weather patterns, sea level rise and loss of biodiversity, it is critical that the ever-growing technology industry turn to fossil fuels to supply this energy. Do not depend.
Climate scientists have been clear in their assessment of both the root cause and solution to the climate crisis. For centuries, humans have released greenhouse gases into the atmosphere causing the world to warm and become increasingly inhospitable to all forms of life. If we want to secure a habitable planet for our future and generations to come, we must stop using clean and renewable energy.
And we have solutions to do that. In this sense, we can be optimistic. But every polluting company needs to do its part by reducing its emissions.
Google's Climate Challenge
Google says it wants to do its job, but it still needs to show us how serious it is about reducing its greenhouse gas emissions first.
What we can tell from Google's goal of net zero emissions by 2030 is that by prioritizing the near-term date, the company understands the urgency of addressing the climate crisis (many companies set goals for 2050 or later). are doing). But this goal should not be pre-defined. If Google fails to honor its environmental commitments, it will make a clear statement about how seriously it values profits over the planet.
Last year alone, Google's greenhouse gas emissions rose 13 percent year-over-year. If we want to take Google seriously, that number needs to go down, not up. Some of these outliers come from parts of Google's value chain and are therefore not directly under its control, which the company acknowledged in its report makes them particularly difficult to deal with.
In its lengthy environmental report, the company details its path to net zero, but we'll only know if it's making progress when the numbers start to line up with its plans. At some point, Google may need to make sacrifices if it is to achieve its goals.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Many optimistic tech companies, including Google, believe that AI can actually play a role in helping to solve the climate crisis by accelerating mitigation and supporting adaptation. Maybe so. But as scientists have reiterated time and time again, reducing emissions is something we can believe in as a way to combat climate change. It might be better for Google and its partners to start there.