THREE years ago, Google set an ambitious plan to address climate change by going “net zero,” meaning it would release no more climate-changing gases into the air than it removes, by 2030. But a report from the company on Tuesday shows it is nowhere near meeting that goal.
Making that electricity by burning coal or natural gas emits greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide and methane, which warm the planet, bringing more extreme weather. The company has one of the most significant climate commitments in industry and has been seen as a leader. Some experts say the rapidly expanding data centers needed to power AI threaten the entire transition to clean electricity, an important part of addressing climate change. That’s because a new data center can delay the closure of a power plant that burns fossil fuel or prompt a new one to be built. Data centers are not only energy-intensive, they require high voltage transmission lines and need significant amounts of water to stay cool. They are also noisy.
In the case of Google, that could mean using data to predict future flooding, or making traffic flow more efficiently, to save gasoline.