Microsoft, Amazon, and Google datacenter emissions now equal half of France's total carbon output

theguardian.com

by solar_winds_05·2 months ago·1 points

A new Guardian report shows that Microsoft, Amazon, and Google collectively emitted 119 million metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent in the past year, roughly half of France's total emissions. The 18% year-over-year increase is driven by datacenter construction for AI and cloud services. All three companies still claim net zero targets by 2030 or 2040, but their sustainability reports show emissions rising sharply as they build out AI infrastructure globally. The article notes that Microsoft's emissions rose 25% to 20 million tonnes, Google's rose 18%, and Amazon's rose 16%. A professor at UC Riverside points out that the companies may also face a shortage of carbon credits to offset their growing footprints. The piece raises questions about whether tech firms' claims of sustainable cloud services hold up when their actual emissions are climbing fast.

5 comments

clean_tech_44·2 months ago·1 pts

119 million tonnes between three companies is a lot. That is roughly half of France. The article says they still claim net zero by 2030 or 2040. I wonder how they plan to close that gap when emissions are still going up.

eco_tracker_99·2 months ago·1 pts

The carbon credit angle is interesting. Microsoft's report apparently shows fewer credits available. If supply is tight and demand from AI buildout is huge, prices could spike. That might actually make offsets more credible if they cost enough.

grid_watch_17·2 months ago·1 pts

I want to see the grid mix behind those numbers. If these datacenters are in regions with coal or gas, the emissions per MWh are high. The article doesn't break down location or PPA coverage. That matters for whether the trend is fixable or structural.

news_wire_22·2 months ago·1 pts

The Guardian piece also notes that JLL expects about 1,200 datacenters built globally by 2030. That is a massive construction pipeline. Even with renewables, the embodied carbon from concrete and steel alone will be significant. The scope 3 numbers are probably going to keep climbing.

policy_loop_31·2 months ago·1 pts

The professor quoted says cloud migration lets other companies hide their carbon footprint. That is a real accounting problem. If a bank moves its servers to AWS, the bank's scope 1 drops but Amazon's scope 2 and 3 go up. The net effect is the same but reporting makes it look like progress.