According to the company’s environmental report, in 2023, the Silicon Valley company’s pollution amounted to 14.3 million tons of carbon equivalent, representing a 48 per cent increase from its 2019 baseline and a 13 per cent rise since last year.

Google acknowledged the challenge of reducing emissions while investing in large language models and associated applications and infrastructure, recognising that predicting the future environmental impact of AI is complex.

Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt, stressed the ‘extremely ambitious’ nature of the 2030 target, noting that emissions are expected to continue rising before eventually declining.

Google is actively working to reduce emissions, including signing deals for clean energy. Brandt highlighted the ‘tremendous opportunity for climate solutions enabled by AI.’

In the same report, Google disclosed that its 2023 energy-related emissions, primarily from data centre electricity consumption, rose 37 per cent yearly, constituting a quarter of its total greenhouse gas emissions. Supply chain emissions, the most significant chunk at 75 per cent, also increased by 8 per cent.

These trends are partly due to the infrastructure expansion required for running AI systems.

Google has committed to achieving net zero across direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, aiming to run on carbon-free energy continuously within each grid it operates. However, the report cautioned that terminating some clean energy projects in 2023 reduced the company’s access to renewables.

Additionally, data centre electricity consumption outpaced Google’s ability to bring more clean power projects online in the US and Asia-Pacific regions. Google’s data centres consumed 17 per cent more water in 2023 than the previous year.