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 percent in 2024 from the year before. Amazon’s were up by 6 percent. Microsoft’s fell slightly but remained 10 percent 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 A.I. 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?
A.I.’s explosive growth
A.I. tools like ChatGPT are powered by vast data centers, which already consume between 4 percent and 5 percent of the electricity used in the United States. Over the next three or four years, that number is expected to double or even triple, to as much as 12 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2028.
Amazon is building a facility in Indiana that will use enough energy to power a million homes. Meta is planning a data center the size of Manhattan.
Consider the spending: Alphabet and Microsoft each said they’d invest $75 billion to $80 billion in capital expenditures this year, a figure that includes data center construction. More recently, Meta said its capital expenditures for 2025 were estimated to run between $66 billion and $72 billion.
These numbers have led to speculation from analysts that A.I. spending is a significant contributing factor for overall growth in U.S. gross domestic product.
Renewable energy capacity isn’t keeping pace with demand
According to Google’s latest sustainability report, the company’s biggest emissions reductions over the next five years will come from efforts to buy renewable electricity for its data centers.
But energy demand from A.I. is growing a lot faster than renewable energy installations, and President Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill passed last month is expected to further undercut renewables in the United States by rapidly phasing out tax credits for wind and solar power.
Put another way, over the next three or four years, data centers are expected to add electricity demand equivalent to two-thirds of all the renewable energy capacity added to the U.S. grid between 2010 and 2023, said Vijay Gadepally, a senior scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory Supercomputing Center.
Several companies have announced investments in nuclear energy to help manage the load, but these projects will take time.
“They’re not signing renewable energy agreements at the same pace at which their emissions are increasing,” Mooldijk said. And some tech companies are also investing in gas plants, she added.
Meta and Google did not respond to requests for comment for this newsletter. Representatives of Microsoft and Amazon said their companies had made progress and were continuing to look for ways to cut emissions.
What about efficiency?
While the build-out of data centers shows no signs of slowing and renewables will struggle to keep pace, there is some potential for efficiency improvements.
In an experiment, Dr. Gadepally directed ChatGPT to shorten the length of its answers during hours of the day when the grid was more likely to be running on a high proportion of fossil fuels.
Instead of generating a three-paragraph response to a straightforward query like “how long to cook white rice” the chatbot might answer with a single sentence, like “boil for 18-20 minutes.”
Over a two-day period, this simple change resulted in an emissions reduction of 70 percent, Dr. Gadepally said. And the quality of the responses did not fall significantly, he said.
There are other, more technical ways for data centers to save energy. Some of those solutions might use A.I. to help determine, for example, whether adjusting the air-conditioning by 2 degrees would save more energy than the cooling process expends.
“There’s a lot of things we can do to be better stewards of the power we currently have,” Dr. Gadepally said.
Of course, even significant improvements in energy efficiency will not offset a mammoth spike in demand.
Still, efficiency is one of the few places where economic and environmental interests are almost always aligned, he said.
They’re champions, and not just at recycling
Lest there be any doubt that pursuing climate goals is a winning strategy, an environmentally minded soccer team that we recently wrote about has just won a national championship.
The Vermont Green Football Club promotes sustainability, environmental justice and climate action. We profiled the team in June for our 50 States, 50 Fixes series, which highlights an environmental success in each state.
On Saturday, the Green won the USL League Two championship in front of a delirious hometown crowd, beating Seattle’s Ballard Football Club, 2-1. Composed largely of amateur college athletes, the league has 144 teams that play in the spring and summer, and the Green went into the championship game undefeated.
The Green were founded in 2021 to bring Vermonters together while championing a cause near and dear to their environmentally friendly state. The club’s merchandise and jerseys are made of recycled and upcycled materials. Sustainable vegan food is served at home games, fans are encouraged to recycle and compost, and the club supports local environmental groups. The club has a fervent fan base, several of whom said the joy of the games was integral to promoting climate awareness, resilience and action.
“One of the biggest points of pride for us is that it shows you can run a successful sports organization, one that wins championships and wins games, while still prioritizing a bigger idea,” said Patrick Infurna, one of the club’s founders. “This mission is our North Star.” — Cara Buckley
More climate news from around the web:
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After a Pennsylvania coal plant was shut down, emergency room visits for pediatric asthma declined by 40 percent, according to new research covered in Inside Climate News.
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Heat waves have strained Europe’s energy grids this summer, the Financial Times reports. As energy demand from air-conditioning spiked, hot weather forced some nuclear plants to close temporarily.
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An Italian regulator has levied a million-euro greenwashing fine on the fast-fashion retailer Shein after an investigation revealed the company had misled consumers about the sustainability of its products and its commitment to reducing emissions, Reuters reports.
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Claire Brown covers climate change for The Times and writes for the Climate Forward newsletter.
The post Big Tech’s Net-Zero Goals Are Looking Shaky appeared first on New York Times.
