The CO2 emissions of US tech giants Google and Amazon are rising sharply, putting their climate goals increasingly out of reach. Both companies released new figures this week: Google’s emissions have risen by 82 percent since 2019, with an 18 percent increase in the past year alone. For Amazon, the figures show a 58 percent rise since 2019 and a good 16 percent increase in 2025. The primary reason is the construction of AI data centers.
For both companies, the amount of CO2 emitted per dollar of revenue also increased. In other words, their emissions are rising faster than their revenues. Yet the corporations have set themselves ambitious goals: Google aims to halve its emissions by 2030, while Amazon plans to be carbon-neutral by 2040.
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“The expansion of our AI infrastructure is currently progressing faster than the decarbonization of the power grid,” said Kate Brandt, who is responsible for sustainability at Google. Kara Hurst from Amazon made a similar statement: The demand for AI products could “slow down” the company in implementing its environmental goals.
In total, Google emitted 18.8 million tons of CO2 equivalent last year. The greenhouse gases come partly from its data centers and offices, but primarily from its chip and server manufacturing supply chain and from the construction of new centers by its suppliers. At Amazon it was 80.85 million tons of CO2. Emissions from warehouses and logistics in particular come into play here.
Google’s electricity consumption has doubled in three years and is nearly equivalent to that of a country like Greece. Amazon’s emissions linked to the construction of data centers have surged by more than 40 percent in a single year.
Author: AFP – pe/mhe
Sources: AFP Press Portal