Google said higher energy consumption at its data centers and emissions from its supply chain were to blame, and said its push to add AI to its products could make it more difficult to reduce emissions going forward.
Google’s emissions climbed by almost half over five years, as the company has infused artificial intelligence (AI) throughout many of its core products — making it harder to meet its goal of eliminating carbon emissions by 2030, according to a new environmental report from the tech giant.
The annual report was released Tuesday and covers Google’s progress toward meeting its environmental goals last year. The Alphabet Inc. unit said its greenhouse gas emissions totaled 14.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent throughout 2023. This is 48% higher than in 2019, the company said, and 13% higher than in 2022.
