Software and search engine behemoths, Microsoft and Google, have seen significant increases in their carbon emissions, primarily driven by the expansion of their data centres and the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing.
Microsoft's carbon emissions have increased by 30% since 2020, despite a 6.3% decrease in its direct (scope 1 and 2) emissions.
The Bill Gates empire said the main driver of its expanded CO2 footprint is the increase of indirect emissions from the production of building materials and hardware components for Microsoft's expanding data centres.
To address this, Microsoft has introduced a requirement for its major suppliers to use 100% carbon-free electricity by 2030.
Google's data centre CO2 emissions have nearly doubled in the last five years, increasing by 48% to 14.3 million tonnes in 2023.
The primary cause is the increased energy consumption due to the rise of AI, which has led to greater fossil fuel consumption and higher emissions.
Google is investing in sustainable alternatives like offshore wind projects to decarbonise its data centre energy, but acknowledges that meeting its climate goals will be challenging as the demand for AIcould outstrip net-zero energy capacity.
The environmental impact of the expanding data centre infrastructure and AI workloads required to support cloud-based data storage and digital services means Microsoft and Google are struggling to reconcile their ambitious climate goals with the reality of the growing carbon footprint of their operations.
