"Google blames AI as its emissions grow instead of heading to net zero", 2 July 2024

"Three years ago, Google set an ambitious plan to address climate change by going “net zero”, meaning it would release no more climate-changing gases into the air than it removes, by 2030.

But a report from the company on Tuesday showed it is nowhere near meeting that goal.

Rather than declining, its emissions grew 13 percent in 2023 over the year before. Compared with its baseline year of 2019, emissions have soared 48 percent.

Google cited artificial intelligence and the demand it puts on data centres, which require massive amounts of electricity, for last year’s growth....

Google Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt told The Associated Press news agency, “Reaching this net zero goal by 2030, this is an extremely ambitious goal.

“We know this is not going to be easy and that our approach will need to continue to evolve,” Brandt added, “and it will require us to navigate a lot of uncertainty, including this uncertainty around the future of AI’s environmental impacts.”...

Global data centre and AI electricity demand could double by 2026, according to the International Energy Agency...."