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>In its latest sustainability report, Google said its carbon emissions had increased 51% between 2019 and 2024.
>New research aims to debunk even that enormous figure and provide context to Google’s sustainability reports, painting a bleaker picture. A report authored by non-profit advocacy group Kairos Fellowship found that, between 2019 and 2024, Google’s carbon emissions actually went up by 65%. What’s more, between 2010, the first year there is publicly available data on Google’s emissions, and 2024, Google’s total greenhouse gas emissions increased 1,515%, Kairos found. The largest year-over-year jump in that window was also the most recent, 2023 to 2024, when Google saw a 26% increase in emissions just between 2023 and 2024, according to the report.
>The energy the tech giant has needed to purchase to power its data centers alone increased 820% since 2010, according to Kairos’s research, a figure that is expected to expand in the future as Google rolls out more AI products. Between 2019 and 2024, emissions that came primarily from the purchase of electricity to power data centers jumped 121%, the report’s authors said.
>“In absolute terms, the increase was 6.8 TWh, or the equivalent of Google adding the entire state of Alaska’s energy use in one year to their previous use,” said Sugerman.
>Based on Google’s current trajectory, the Kairos report’s authors say the company is unlikely to meet its own 2030 deadline without a significant push from the public. There are three categories of greenhouse gas emissions – called Scopes 1, 2 and 3 – and Google has only meaningfully decreased its Scope 1 emissions since 2019, according to the Kairos report. Scope 1 emissions, which include emissions just from Google’s own facilities and vehicles, account for only 0.31% of the company’s total emissions.