--- title: "Google Is Failing to Meet Important Climate Targets so Its AI Can Tell You to Put Glue on Pizza" description: "Energizer Bunny Google's latest environmental impact report shows that the Silicon Valley stalwart is woefully behind its ambitious plan to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2030, according to The Associated Press. The culprit for Google's significant sustainability backpedaling? AI. Per the AP, Google's 2023 carbon emissions saw a year-over-year increase of a staggering 13 percent […]" date: "2024-07-03" modified: "2024-07-03" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-failing-climate-targets-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Google" tags: - "ai" - "Google" - "net zero" - "the digest" --- # Google Is Failing to Meet Important Climate Targets so Its AI Can Tell You to Put Glue on Pizza ![In its latest environmental impact report, Google admitted that its 2023 emissions saw a 13 percent year-over-year increase. The culprit? AI.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Energizer Bunny Google's latest [environmental impact report]() shows that the Silicon Valley stalwart is woefully behind its ambitious plan to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2030, [as flagged by]()*[ The Associated Press]().* The culprit? AI. Per the *AP*, Google's 2023 carbon emissions saw a year-over-year increase of a staggering 13 percent from the previous year and 49 percent from 2019, with Google citing its AI efforts as the driving force behind the shift. Though AI's energy demands remain mostly invisible to the public eye, it's an incredibly resource-intensive field. AI models practically guzzle energy — one search on OpenAI's ChatGPT, for example, is estimated to be equivalent to that of ten Google searches — by putting heavy stress on the data centers needed to keep the models running. The servers at said data centers also run the risk of overheating, meaning that companies like [Google]() and [Microsoft]() often need to use water to cool them back down. (Both [Google]() and [Microsoft]() use an air-cooling system so long as outside temperatures stay below a certain heat threshold, but in a warming world, there are and will continue to be a lot of hot days.) In short, Google's quest to keep up in the ongoing Silicon Valley AI race has come at the expense of its efforts to reduce carbon emissions. And though Google and other AI makers continue [to promote]() AI and machine learning as tools for mitigating climate change, the public has mostly seen generative AI products like Google's AI-integrated search telling us to [eat rocks]() and [put glue on pizza](). What can we say? At least the cheese won't slip off our slices as the planet withers. ## Don't Be Evil As noted in its report, Google *has* made an effort to incorporate renewable energy sources into its overall power infrastructure. Even so, the fact remains that the company is moving further away from its climate target — though a**s** Google Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt told the *AP*, its net zero mission is a real toughie, anyway. "Reaching this net zero goal by 2030," Brandt told the *AP*, "is an extremely ambitious goal." "We know this is not going to be easy and that our approach will need to continue to evolve," she continued, "and it will require us to navigate a lot of uncertainty, including this uncertainty around the future of AI's environmental impacts." Meanwhile, experts like Amanda Smith, a senior scientist at the climate nonprofit Project Drawdown, are urging everyone — makers and everyday users of AI alike — to be mindful of their AI consumption. "It's up to us as humans to watch what we're doing with" AI, Smith told the *AP*, adding that "when it's worth it, we can make sure that those demands are going to be met by clean sources of power." **More on Google and AI:** [*Google Is Using a Flabbergasting Amount of Water on AI*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()