Google reports thirteen percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions

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Wednesday, July 3, 2024 

On Tuesday, Google released an annual environmental report on their blog indicating the company’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions increased thirteen percent over the previous year. This increase is primarily a result of heightened energy use in data centers and emissions from supply chains. According to Ars Technica, this is a 48 percent increase over Google’s 2019 baseline and makes it more difficult for Google to reach its net-zero carbon goal by 2030.

Data centers such as Google's in Council Bluffs, Iowa (pictured here in 2017) consume very large amounts of energy for computing and cooling.
Image: chaddavis.photography.

The largest increase in emissions was a result of electricity consumption by data centers, which accounted for a 37 percent increase over the previous year. Google is increasing its data center infrastructure primarily to support large language models, or what is commonly called artificial intelligence (AI).

According to the report, Google is hoping that AI will help reduce GHG emissions in the future. The report also states that "[p]redicting the future environmental impact of AI is complex and evolving, and our historical trends likely don’t fully capture AI’s future trajectory."

The report makes clear that Google intends to continue expanding infrastructure to accommodate AI despite its environmental impact, with the anticipation that eventually the industry and AI will together mitigate the resulting GHG emissions.

The BBC reports that computing infrastructure that supports AI "might use around 33 times more energy than machines running task-specific software." John Pittigrew, CEO of Great Britain’s National Grid warned that energy demand from both quantum computing and AI could increase 600 percent over the next ten years.

The industry is already reaching limits in energy supply in certain regions. For example, Amazon.com has reportedly restricted data center use in Ireland as a result of limited energy supply.

Related news

• "Industry leaders see energy supply as the next hurdle for AI" — Wikinews, April 25, 2024

Sources

• Imran Rahman-Jones. "AI drives 48 percent increase in Google emissions" — BBC News Online, July 3, 2024
• Camilla Hodgson, Stephen Morris. "Google’s greenhouse gas emissions jump 48 percent in five years" — Arstechnica, July 2, 2024
• Google. "2024 Environmental Report" — Google, July 2, 2024 (PDF)