Challenging Big Tech's carbon-neutral goals
Apple, Google and Meta said they will stop CO2 emissions into the atmosphere by 2030, while Amazon sets that target by 2040.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has pledged to achieve the "grid" goal of removing CO2 from the air by the end of the decade.
But those pledges, made before the AI fever changed the industry, are starting to become a illusion even as these companies have stepped up their implementation, according to independent analysts.
Thomas Hay, the main author of the carbon-neutral reports, said: "The greenhouse gas emissions targets of technology companies seem to have lost their significance. If energy consumption continues to increase uncontrollably and without adequate supervision, these goals are unlikely to be achieved."
The in-depth analysis shows that the overall integrity of climate strategies at Meta, Microsoft and Amazon is low, while Apple and Microsoft are considered average.
When it comes to the quality of emission reduction targets, Meta and Amazon's targets are rated as "very poor," while Google and Microsoft are considered "poor." Only Apple has achieved better results.
The fact that the world's top five technology giants have not been able to achieve the desired carbon neutrality stems largely from the rapid development of artificial intelligence, which requires huge amounts of energy to develop and operate.
According to the latest report, the consumption of electricity and accompanying carbon emissions has doubled in some companies in this Big Tech group over the past 3-4 years and doubled in others.
The same is true in the entire technology industry. The emissions from the operations of the world's top 200 IT companies will be nearly 300 million tons of CO2 by 2023, nearly five times more than those of downstream products and services, according to the United Nations International Telecommunications Alliance.
If the industry is a country, it would be fifth in greenhouse gas emissions, ahead of Brazil.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the amount of electricity supplied to data centers will increase by an average of 12% per year from 2017 to 2024 and is expected to double by 2030.
Uncontrollable situation
Studies estimate that half of the computing power of technology companies' data centers comes from subcontractors, but many companies do not take this emission into account.
The same is true for the entire infrastructure and equipment supply chain, which accounts for at least a third of the carbon emissions of technology companies.
"There is a lot of investment in renewable energy, but overall it has not solved the electricity needs of this industry," said Thomas Day.
Regarding the solution, in addition to managing the development of AI (artificial intelligence) well, according to experts, it is very important to ensure that data centers - including the company's data center and third-party partners - use renewable electricity.
Extending the life of equipment and expanding the use of recycled components to produce hardware can also make a big difference, reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
