Google’s greenhouse gas emissions have climbed over 48% since 2019, with the search giant’s increasing dependency on AI in its data centers dramatically increasing its power consumption. In the company’s 2024 Environmental Report, Google has now conceded that there’s “significant uncertainty” around reaching its target, saying it “won’t be easy” to reach its “extremely ambitious” goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2030. Back in 2020, Google parent Alphabet Inc.
announced a 24/7 CFE goal to run its entire business on carbon-free energy by 2030, matching electricity demand with CFE supply every hour of every day. Back in May, Google revealed that it plans to spend $1.1bn to expand its main data center in Finland due to the location’s access to green energy. However, the company will have to contend with the surging power demand growth being witnessed across diverse industries in Western economies thanks in large part to the ongoing AI boom.