The growing popularity of artificial intelligence technologies has led to a huge surge in emissions by digital companies, with the emissions of four of the biggest tech companies jumping by 150 per cent in three years.
The United Nations’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and World Benchmarking Alliance’s new report, Greening Digital Companies 2025, reveals that the tech sector is responsible for an increasing amount of carbon emissions, despite public commitments to net-zero.
The report tracks the greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and climate commitments of 200 leading tech companies, as of 2023, the most recent year that this full data is available.
An AI-fueled rise in emissions
It reveals the extraordinary impact on the climate of the rapid rise of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, and their associated reliance on big data centres, and calls for urgent changes to address this.
According to the report, the electricity consumption by data centres increased by 12 per cent each year from 2017 to 2023, at four times the pace of global electricity growth.
It also showed that the operational emissions of Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta skyrocketed by 150 per cent on average from 2020 to 2023.
Amazon’s total operational emissions, which includes those directly created by the company and those from purchased energy consumption, increased by 182 per cent, while Microsoft’s surged by 155 per cent.
Google-parent company Alphabet saw its emissions rise by 138 per cent in the three-year period, while Meta’s increased by 145 per cent.
“Advances in digital innovation – especially AI – are driving up energy consumption and global emissions,” ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin said.
Public commitments
Despite the substantial increases in emissions, the tech sector has shown signs that it is aware of the issue and has made commitments to address it.
Many of the companies included in the report have set emissions targets, sourced renewable energy and aligned with science-based frameworks.
Eight companies scored more than 90 per cent in the ITU’s climate commitment assessment on data disclosure, targets and performance, up from three in the previous year.
Half the companies had committed to achieving net-zero emissions, with 41 targeting this by 2050 and 51 aiming for earlier.
Just under 50 of the tech companies had also released standalone climate reports.
“While more must be done to shrink the tech sector’s footprint, the latest Greening Digital Companies report shows that industry understands the challenge, and that continued progress depends on sustaining momentum together,” Bogdan-Martin said.
World Benchmarking Alliance director of research and digitisation Lourdes O Montenegro said that this ambition must now be turned into action on reducing climate impacts.
“Digital companies have the tools and influence to lead the global climate transition, but progress must be measured not only by ambition, but by credible action,” Montenegro said.
“This report provides a clear signal to the international community: more companies are stepping up, but emissions and electricity use continues to rise.”
The 166 companies included in the report accounted for just under 1 per cent of all global energy-related emissions in 2023, and 2.1 per cent of global electricity use.
Ten of these companies were responsible for half of the overall energy use.
The ITU and World Benchmarking Alliance has called on tech companies around the world to strengthen data verification, target ambition and climate reporting, and to reveal the full environmental footprint of AI operations.
Alphabet has previously detailed how its embrace of power-hungry AI is hampering its net-zero emissions.
Last year the tech giant revealed its emissions had increased by 48 per cent over the previous five years, placing its 2021 commitment to reach net-zero emissions across its operations and value chain by 2030 in jeopardy.
Google’s emissions increased by 13 per cent from 2022 to 2023, and by 48 per cent compared to the 2019 baseline levels.
Concerns have also been raised that fellow tech giant Apple is not as carbon neutral as it claims to due to a lack of transparency around its suppliers’ emissions.
