Tech Giants' Net-Zero Goals Are Looking Shaky

Emissions Are 'Going Through the Roof' Because of AI

- CLAIRE BROWN

The artificial intelligence boom could pose a serious threat to tech company goals to zero out emissions by the end of the decade, according to a fresh batch of sustainability reports.

Google's greenhouse gas emissions rose by 11% in 2024 from the year before. Amazon's were up by 6%. Microsoft's fell slightly but remained 10% higher than they were in 2021. Meta's most recent figures have not yet been made public.

"Their emissions are really going through the roof, due to new data centers and AI uses," said Silke Mooldijk, a climate policy analyst at the NewClimate Institute, which published a report in June on the tech sector's net-zero targets.

That's a major change from just two years ago, when the same analysis showed that tech companies were doing pretty well, she said. Still, Google, Meta and Microsoft continue to say they will hit net zero by 2030, and Amazon has said it will follow by 2040. Experts are increasingly skeptical. "In light of these rising emissions, it's really unclear what these targets really mean, because the companies are completely off track," Mooldijk said.

So, are tech companies clinging to net-zero ambitions that are farther and farther out of reach?

AI's explosive growth AI tools like ChatGPT are powered by vast data centers, which already consume between 4% and 5% of the electricity used in the US. Over the next three or four years, that number is expected to double or even triple, to as much as 12% of the nation's electricity by 2028.