News Summary

Google’s carbon emissions have increased by 51% since 2019, primarily due to the soaring electricity demand from its datacentres required to power artificial intelligence. Despite significant investments in renewable energy and carbon removal technology, the company struggles to reduce its scope 3 emissions, heavily influenced by the expanded datacentre capacity. The International Energy Agency estimates that datacentres’ electricity consumption could double by 2026, driven by AI demands. Google highlights the lack of progress in new low-carbon electricity generation technologies, such as Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), which could help decarbonize datacentres. Meanwhile, the company is actively investing in clean energy, with 25 new projects adding 2.5GW of clean energy in 2024. Google also aims to use AI to help reduce carbon-equivalent emissions by 1 gigaton annually by 2030.