Google's emissions up 48% since 2019, driven by AI data centers

Google's emissions are up 50%

Google’s greenhouse gas emissions have grown substantially, increasing by 48 percent since 2019. The company released its 2024 environmental report on Tuesday, revealing it produced 14.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution last year.

That’s roughly equivalent to the annual emissions from 38 gas-fired power plants. The tech giant attributes this growth primarily to the increasing energy demands of its data centers and supply chain emissions.

AI is the primary driver

The report directly links the rising emissions to the explosive growth of artificial intelligence. Training and running AI models in data centers requires massive amounts of electricity.

“As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute,” the report states. This marks a significant shift from Google’s previous goal of reducing its total emissions.

Previous climate goal is now out of reach

In 2021, Google set a target to achieve “net-zero” emissions across its direct and indirect greenhouse gas pollution by 2030. The new data makes that goal far more difficult.

The company now says the “uncertainty” around the future environmental impact of AI makes it impossible to know when it will actually hit that target. This represents a major setback for its climate ambitions.

Data centers and supply chains are key culprits

Google’s total data center electricity consumption grew 17 percent in 2023. These facilities now account for up to 10 percent of global data center electricity use, according to the International Energy Agency.

The company’s supply chain emissions—classified as Scope 3—are its largest source of pollution. These indirect emissions, which come from building infrastructure like data centers and manufacturing hardware, rose by 8 percent last year.

• Total emissions in 2023: 14.3 million metric tons
• Increase since 2019: 48 percent
• Data center electricity growth in 2023: 17 percent
• Supply chain emissions growth in 2023: 8 percent

Renewable energy progress is mixed

Google matched an estimated 64 percent of its electricity consumption with carbon-free energy in 2023. This is a decrease from 2022, when it matched 68 percent.

The company notes that while it is investing in clean energy, the rapid build-out of data centers is happening faster than the grid can add new renewable sources. This creates a lag in decarbonizing its power supply.

A broader industry trend

Google is not alone in seeing its climate goals complicated by AI. Microsoft’s emissions have also risen by 30 percent since 2020, largely for the same reasons.

The energy-intensive nature of AI is forcing a reckoning across the tech industry. Companies must now balance their AI ambitions with their public climate commitments, a tension that is becoming increasingly difficult to resolve.