Carbon emissions from Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet have surged 2.5 times in the past three years as these companies expanded their AI capabilities, according to the United Nations
The information was published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an agency of the United Nations, in a report released on June 5. Emissions calculated in scope 1 and 2, including direct and indirect emissions from power sources, heating and cooling systems, from 2020 to 2023.
Emissions increased 2.5 times (up 150%) due to the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and energy-intensive data centers. Of which, carbon emissions in Amazon's operations increased the most (182%), followed by Microsoft (155%), Meta (145%) and Alphabet (138%).
The ITU tracked the greenhouse gas emissions of the world's top 200 tech companies between 2020 and 2023.
In fact, in terms of scope 2 emissions from energy use alone, that is, emissions from electricity supply, Microsoft has increased its carbon emissions from 4.3 million tonnes in 2020 to nearly 10 million tonnes in 2024, according to the Financial Times.
To ensure it stays on track to achieve negative emissions by 2030, the tech giant has ramped up its purchase of carbon credits. A carbon credit is a tradable permit or certificate that gives the holder the right to emit one ton of CO2 or another listed greenhouse gas.
For example, a coal-fired power company in Illinois could buy carbon credits from a solar company in Texas to offset its CO2 emissions. After using the offset credits, Microsoft's CO2 emissions in 2020 would be 456,000 tons, and in 2024 they would be just 259,000 tons.
Responding to the ITU report, Meta, the company that owns Facebook and WhatsApp, said it is working to reduce emissions, energy and water use in its data centers. It has also recently signed a contract to purchase nuclear power, a green, sustainable source of baseload electricity.
Amazon is also looking to buy nuclear power, aiming for a zero-emissions energy source. They are also investing in renewable energy. Microsoft doubled its energy savings last year and is switching to liquid cooling at the chip level, instead of traditional cooling systems, to reduce energy consumption in data centers.
The ITU authors cited another report that estimated carbon emissions from the 20 largest AI systems at 102.6 million tonnes of CO2 per year. They also noted that a growing number of digital companies have set emissions targets, but those ambitions have yet to translate into real action.
Source: vnexpress.net