Google has pledged to be carbon-free through its CEO. At least, that’s what Sundar Pichai claims, but he doesn’t say that he won’t release carbon compounds.
After 17 years Google so it abandoned its promise of carbon neutrality rising emissions following artificial intelligence according to the tech giant’s latest environmental report.
Since 2007, Google claims to have purchased enough clean energy supplies to cover most of the emissions it produces through its data centers and buildings. However, as of 2023, Google will no longer “maintain operational carbon neutrality,” according to the report.
That’s because Google’s greenhouse gas emissions have increased nearly 50 percent since 2019, the company said. The company attributes the increase to “increased energy demands from AI’s greater computational intensity,” along with emissions related to the broader infrastructure investments required by AI
Big investments in artificial intelligence
Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind’s artificial intelligence development laboratory, told Fortune that Google will invest about $100 billion in artificial intelligence in the coming years. So far, the most visible results of this investment are AI insights into Google’s Gemini, a large language model that can be used to power various AI tools designed to compete with the company’s Search and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Nathan Truitt, executive vice president of climate finance at the nonprofit American Forest Foundation, told Fortune that this investment comes at an environmental cost.
“On an individual level, artificial intelligence will certainly lead to a rapid increase in emissions for companies that invest heavily in it,” Truitt said. “And it will lead to Google announcing that they need to recalibrate their
Net Zero vs. Carbon Neutral
This announcement does not mean that Google has completely given up on reducing its emissions. Instead, the company set another goal in the report: to achieve net zero emissions by 2030.
There is a key difference between a carbon neutral target and a net zero emissions target. Carbon neutral refers to offsetting or neutralizing emissions through carbon neutralization activities, such as planting trees or purchasing carbon credits, without necessarily reducing emissions at source. Truitt metaphorically stated that it’s like someone trying to burn excess calories through exercise alone without changing their diet.
“In theory, that would be nice, but in practice it’s very unlikely to work,” Truitt said.
Net zero, on the other hand, involves first reducing emissions as much as possible at the source (the “diet” part) and then offsetting any remaining emissions through carbon removal activities (the “exercise” part).
Truitt noted that this combination is “much, much more effective” and also extremely ambitious.
“It’s going to require them to solve a lot of really difficult technical, logistical, economic and financial problems all at once, in a very short amount of time,” Truitt said.
By focusing on both offsetting carbon emissions and reducing greenhouse gases, Google hopes to make a more “definable” and “quantifiable” impact on the environment, according to the report.
A net zero emissions target could also help Google fend off criticism from pundits over its carbon neutrality claims. Critics have questioned whether low-cost investments can actually “offset” carbon emissions.
The innocent cast the stone first
Despite the criticism, Truitt doesn’t want critics to be too harsh on companies that claim to be carbon neutral. Trying to do something about the environment is harder and more dangerous than doing nothing. We shouldn’t punish companies that try to do something, he argued.
“Companies should be rewarded and able to make claims for using carbon offsets to address their emissions,” Truitt