Google Abandons Carbon Neutrality

Since 2007, Google has claimed to purchase enough clean energy to match most of the emissions it generates through its data centers and buildings. However, the latest report states that as of 2023, Google is no longer ‘maintaining its operational carbon neutrality’.

This is because Google’s greenhouse gas emissions have increased by nearly 50 percent since 2019, the company announced. They attributed the spike to ‘increased energy demand due to higher intensity AI computing’, with emissions related to the broader investment in infrastructure that AI requires.

And the situation is not expected to improve as Google plans to invest around $100 billion in artificial intelligence over the next few years, said Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, the company’s AI development lab. So far, the most visible results of that investment in AI are the so-called AI review in the search engine and Google’s chatbot Gemini, a large language model that can be used to power various AI tools and is designed to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

However, this investment comes with costs, which are primarily borne by the environment, Nathan Truitt, executive vice president for climate finance at the nonprofit American Forest Foundation, told Fortune.

– At an individual level, artificial intelligence will definitely create a rapid increase in emissions for companies investing heavily in it – said Truitt, adding that companies, including Google, will need to ‘calibrate’ their goals.

Net Zero vs. Carbon Neutral

This announcement does not mean that Google has completely abandoned its emissions reduction efforts. Instead, the company has set its sights on a different goal in the report: achieving net zero emissions by 2030. There is a key difference between a carbon neutral goal and a net zero emissions goal. Carbon neutral refers to compensating or neutralizing emissions through carbon removal activities such as tree planting or purchasing carbon credits, without necessarily reducing emissions at the source.

– In theory, that would be fine, but in practice, it is very unlikely to succeed – said Truitt.

Net zero, on the other hand, involves first reducing emissions as much as possible at the source and then offsetting all remaining emissions through carbon removal activities.

By focusing on carbon emissions compensation and reducing greenhouse gases, Google hopes to have a ‘more certain and scalable’ impact on the environment, the report states.

The net zero emissions goal could also help Google avoid criticism that some experts have directed at its claims of carbon neutrality. Critics have questioned whether cheap investments – such as paying villages to protect their forests or planting a few thousand trees – can truly ‘offset’ carbon emissions.

Despite the criticism, Truitt does not want organizations or advocacy groups to be too harsh on corporations claiming to be carbon neutral.

– It is harder and riskier to try to do something about the environment than to do nothing; we should not punish companies that are trying to do something – Truitt naively asserted.

However, he added that he hopes corporations will stop viewing climate policy as a transaction and take on more leadership roles.