She added that Google is “very committed” to reducing emissions, including by signing clean energy deals, and Brandt said there are “huge opportunities for climate action enabled by AI.”
As big tech companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft announce plans to invest tens of billions of dollars in AI, climate experts have raised concerns about the environmental impact of these power-hungry tools and systems.
Microsoft acknowledged in May that its emissions had increased by nearly a third since 2020, mainly due to the construction of data centers.
But Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates also argued last week that AI could help drive solutions to climate change.
Meanwhile, constraints on energy generation and transmission are already posing challenges for companies looking to build new technologies.
Bernstein analysts said in June that AI “could double the growth rate of electricity demand in the U.S., causing total consumption to exceed current supply over the next two years.”
Google said in its report on Tuesday that energy-related emissions in 2023, mainly due to electricity consumption by its data centers, rose 37% from the previous year and overall accounted for a quarter of the company's greenhouse gas emissions.
Google's supply chain emissions (the largest component of the company's total emissions, at 75%) also increased by 8%.
Google said these costs “will continue to rise in the near term” as part of building out the infrastructure needed to run its AI systems.
Google has committed to achieving net-zero direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and to running every hour of every day on carbon-free energy within each grid it operates by that date.
But the company warned in a report on Tuesday that the “termination” of some clean energy projects in 2023 has reduced the amount of renewable energy available to the company.
Meanwhile, the company's data center electricity consumption “outpaced” Google's ability to bring more clean power projects online in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific regions.
Google estimates that its data center electricity consumption will grow 17% in 2023, reaching about 7-10% of global data center electricity consumption.
Google said its data centers will use 17% more water in 2023 than they did the previous year.
Written by Camilla Hodgson in London and Stephen Morris in San Francisco.
© Financial Times
