Google's latest environmental reportpresents AI's dual reality — the hope it can aid the global warming fight and the impact of its thirst for energy.
Why it matters: This is the second tech giant, following Microsoft, to reveal AI's emissions challenges.
Driving the news: The company's report says it's ended the mass purchase of cheap carbon offsets, stopped claiming its operations are carbon neutral, and now aims to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.
State of play: Google's corporate emissions rose another 13% last year and are up 48% compared to their 2019 baseline.
Last year's growth reflects the "challenge of reducing emissions while compute intensity increases and we grow our technical infrastructure investment to support this AI transition," the report states.
But it also highlights efforts to make AI infrastructure far more efficient, and it highlights Google's AI products that cut emissions, such as tools that cities use to improve traffic.
💬 Our thought bubble,via Axios Pro Climate Deals' Katie Fehrenbacher: Data center companies will need to get creative and tap all available clean energy resources to get anywhere near their emissions goals.
What we're watching: How climate-focused investors and corporations address this duality.
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