Rawalpindi, June 26, 2025: The escalating energy demands of major technology companies are reportedly undermining their ambitious climate pledges. A new report from the nonprofit NewClimate Institute suggests that firms like Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, all committed to significant net-zero goals, face a growing “climate strategy crisis.” This challenge stems from their data centers’ ever-increasing need for electricity and water, driven by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing.
Thomas Day, co-author of the report, noted a shift in the industry’s stance on climate targets. “The narrative has changed from ‘we’re fixed on the target’ to ‘we’re really not sure, but we’ll get there somehow,'” Day told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. He highlighted that complexities in reporting future emissions further complicate the picture.
Microsoft, for instance, acknowledged difficulties in reaching its 2020 sustainability goals, stating, “We have had to acknowledge that the moon has gotten further away.”
The report indicates that Microsoft’s electricity demand has tripled since 2020, fueled by investments in massive computer system warehouses supporting services like photo storage, music streaming, and AI chatbot interactions. Microsoft declined to comment on the report’s findings.
Read More: Xiaomi YU7 Undercuts Tesla Model Y in China EV Market
Data Center Proliferation and Energy Hunger
The number of data centers has surged in recent years. North America housed fewer than 1,500 in 2014; by 2024, the United States alone had over 5,400, according to Statista. Their average size and power usage have also substantially increased.
Despite nearly all major tech firms pledging to reach net-zero emissions by 2030, environmental campaigners express concern that their growing reliance on data centers will derail these ambitions. This is primarily due to surging energy and water consumption. McKinsey, a consultancy, projects AI alone to consume around 12% of U.S. energy by the decade’s end, making the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy increasingly difficult.
The NewClimate report, based on publicly available information, details a dramatic increase in emissions among these tech giants, with only minor adjustments to their sustainability strategies. Many plans fail to address total emissions, often covering only about half of the projected figures. Vague accounting practices exacerbate the difficulty in assessing this gap.
Read More: FTC Announces $126 Million Fortnite Refunds to Players
Meta’s emissions have more than doubled since 2019, and Amazon’s have nearly done so. Amazon’s net-zero pledge by 2040, however, omits significant portions of its business and heavily relies on market-based offsets like carbon credits. Furthermore, companies such as Meta and Microsoft frequently do not include third-party data center operations in their emissions tallies, despite contracting out substantial infrastructure.
Apple and Google did not respond to requests for comment. Meta declined to comment on the report, though a spokesperson cited a 2024 blog post on its energy strategy, emphasizing transparent reporting on emissions and energy use.
Amazon, conversely, disputed the report, claiming it “mischaracterizes our data and makes inaccurate assumptions throughout—its own disclaimer even acknowledges NCI cannot guarantee its factual accuracy.”
Read More: Facebook Groups Hit By Mass Bans Due to Meta Technical Error
Amazon asserted a “proven, independently audited, seven-year track record of transparently delivering facts that follow global reporting standards.” The company described AI as a transformative technology driving energy demand across all sectors and highlighted various sustainability initiatives, including efficient delivery routes, lower water use, and eliminating plastic packaging. “We’re excited about what’s ahead and will continue to share our progress openly,” Amazon stated.
Nick Dyer-Witheford, a professor of information and media studies at the University of Western Ontario, also raised broader concerns about Big Tech’s influence on the wider digital economy, pointing to the carbon impact of global online activity such as targeted advertising, e-commerce, and influencer-driven consumerism. He stressed, “It is the role of giant digital corporations in sustaining a global regime of ceaseless production and hyper-consumption that needs attention.”
Read More: Punjab Govt Issues Stern Warning Over Muharram Internet Misuse
AI’s Energy Hunger and Grid Challenges
In the United States, over half of the 5,400 data centers operating in March ran on fossil fuels, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. From 2017 to 2024, energy demand from data centers rose 12%, and the International Energy Agency anticipates it to double again by 2030.
Nearly half of this future demand will come from AI-driven data centers, potentially forcing power utilities and grid operators to adapt rapidly, stated Anurag K. Srivastava, a computer science professor at West Virginia University.
AI usage is expected to fluctuate rapidly, influenced by time of day or sudden surges tied to viral trends. Srivastava explained that “Gas is one [source of energy] that can ramp up and down quickly—you can’t do that with nuclear or others,” adding that while solar can offer similar flexibility, it requires localized generation. Large storage batteries could also assist.
Srivastava warned that such flexibility comes with environmental and financial costs for local communities. “Whatever the ramp-up in power looks like, it will unfold at unprecedented speed,” he concluded. “The rate of load change is probably one of the fastest we have seen.”
