AI’s soaring power demands push Amazon’s emissions higher

Amazon’s carbon emissions increased 6 percent in 2024, ending a three-year run lower. The tech and retail titan emitted 68.25 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent over the year, according to its annual sustainability report, which was released Wednesday, well above its 2023 output.

The spike results from an explosion in data center construction to support the growing demand for artificial intelligence technologies. These sites consume vast amounts of energy and raw materials, including enormous amounts of steel and concrete, two of the materials that are also most carbon-intensive to produce.

The new data underscore a growing tightening at Amazon. The company had publicly pledged to achieve net-zero carbon by 2040 as part of its Climate Pledge, a much-heralded effort that set a bar for corporate climate action. But five years later, Amazon’s emissions had grown by a third.

AI’s soaring power demands push Amazon’s emissions higher

The Amazon report also admitted that, considering the company’s electricity purchases, its emissions will increase by 1 percent in 2024. It was the first time it had observed growth in that category since it began tracking it in 2019.

The energy antenna focuses more on the power-greedy aspect of AI workloads, explaining to a large extent the boost in electricity consumption. The large AI models are trained across enormous computing resources, creating extravagant electricity consumption at data centers.

In the report, Amazon acknowledged that it is crucial for collective efforts to reduce energy peaks and expand access to green, carbon-free energy to continue supporting the advanced technologies their customers rely on.

And for all the money Amazon has thrown at renewable energy, including wind and solar projects around the globe, the company is finding it increasingly hard to keep up with the headlong growth of AI.

The rest of big tech, including Amazon, Alphabet (the parent company of Google), Meta, and Microsoft, have increasingly turned to AI to discover their next great leap forward. However, the environmental costs are getting a second look.

The companies’ growing AI data centers require more electricity, and the electricity demand has spiked. In some parts of the country, that need has been filled by power plants that run on natural gas and coal, sources that many companies had largely shunned to gravitate toward greener ones.

AI is revolutionizing the energy sector, but it is not always for the better. In places where clean energy infrastructure has failed to keep pace with surging demand, especially driven by tech-powered growth, progress toward sustainability is beginning to reverse.

Meanwhile, Amazon and other giants are signing contracts to secure carbon-free nuclear power for future operations. Both batches of deals should come online in a couple of years, but the divide between demand for energy and supply of the clean stuff is only growing.

Amazon struggles to balance innovation with sustainability

Amazon says it is still committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2040, noting its efforts to decarbonize its delivery fleet and grow its purchases of renewable energy and its investments in nascent technologies such as carbon capture.

However, Amazon’s current path, particularly its effort to drive the AI boom, means its climate promises are in jeopardy.

But as the company invests in its AI infrastructure, there are increasing calls from many quarters for more transparency, faster renewable adoption, and clearer accountability for tracking and curbing emissions.

For now, Amazon’s 2024 vision is of a tech superpower pushing the future of AI, and pushing back even farther — at least for now — from the green promises it made just five years ago.

Your crypto news deserves attention - KEY Difference Wire puts you on 250+ top sites