Big Tech’s indirect emissions jumped 150% in 3 years amid AI boom, U.N. report says

Indirect carbon emissions from the operations of four of the leading AI-focused tech companies—Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta—rose on average by 150% from 2020 to 2023, as they had to use more power for energy-demanding data centers, a United Nations report said on Thursday.

The use of artificial intelligence is driving up global indirect emissions because of the vast amounts of energy required to power data centers, the report by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)...