As the world continues to confront the disrupting effects of climate change, tech titans have not been left behind and are already on course to carbon neutrality. Google has today pledged to build on its previous goal of matching its energy use with 100% renewable energy and aims to power its data centers and offices 24-7 using solely carbon-free electricity by 2030. These data centers host the products and services that we’ve all come to rely on every day, meaning every email you send through Gmail, every question you ask on Google Search, every YouTube video you watch, and every route you take using their Google Maps will be powered by clean energy every hour of every day.
“We are committed to doing our part. Sustainability has been a core value for us since Larry and Sergey founded Google two decades ago. We were the first major company to become carbon neutral in 2007. We were the first major company to match our energy use with 100 percent renewable energy in 2017. We operate the cleanest global cloud in the industry, and we’re the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy,” said Sundar Pichai CEO of Google and Alphabet.
Google will invest in approaches like pairing wind and solar power sources together and increasing the use of battery storage to make it possible to source reliable carbon-free energy in all locations, at all times of the day, and to find ways to apply AI to optimize its electricity demand and forecasting. The company says these efforts will help create 12,000 jobs by 2025 and most importantly accelerate the availability of clean energy in communities worldwide thus help to solve challenges that have held back its ability to become an around-the-clock source of energy.
Google says it is eliminating its entire carbon legacy covering all its operational emissions before it was declared carbon neutral in 2007 through the purchase of high-quality carbon offsets. The tech giant also says it will enable 5 GW of new carbon-free energy across its key manufacturing regions by 2030 through investment. This will spur more than $5 billion in clean energy investments, avoid amounts of emissions equal to taking more than 1 million cars off the road each year and create more than 8,000 clean energy jobs according to the company.
Sundar Pichai said they are committing to help more than 500 cities and local governments globally reduce a total of 1 gigaton of carbon emissions annually by 2030 and introduce a number of initiatives to help partners and organizations reduce their carbon usage and remove carbon from the atmosphere.
“We’re optimistic that by harnessing new technologies, investing in the right infrastructure and tools, and empowering partners, nonprofits, and people, this can be the most decisive decade for climate action yet. We’re proud to do our part, and to help move the world closer to a carbon-free future for all,” he said.
Microsoft had also announced earlier this year that it would be “carbon negative” by 2030, and by 2050 it will remove from the environment all the carbon the company has emitted either directly or by electrical consumption since it was founded in 1975 while Amazon pledged to be carbon neutral by 2040.
