On July 2nd, Kairos Fellowship published an investigation titled “Google’s Eco-Failures,” which reveals that Google’s expansion of generative AI technologies is causing the corporation to increase its greenhouse gas emissions and total energy and water consumption.
This investigation succeeds Google’s 2025 environment report, which the company has used since 2016 to mislead activists, lawmakers, and the public about its true environmental toll, instead painting a picture of itself as a benevolent actor amidst our worsening climate crisis.
Findings from Kairos Fellowship’s new report include the following:
Google is misleading the public about its supposed reduction in emissions:
- Google’s reported total greenhouse gas emissions increased 1,515% from 2010 to 2024 according to the company’s own published data.
- While Google reports a decrease in its data center emissions, it is doing so by only reporting “market based emissions,” which use renewable energy purchased elsewhere to obscure real emissions. Google’s only emissions that have shown an absolute decrease since 2019 are its scope 1 emissions, which merely account for 0.31% of Google’s reported total emissions.
- Google’s aggressive investment in Generative AI and its infrastructure is a major factor behind its climate failings. Google’s Scope 2 emissions, which measure the emissions from energy that Google purchases to power its data centers, have increased by 820% since 2010.
Google is knowingly making false claims about its potential to improve:
- Google’s claim that it can achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 relies heavily on speculative technologies, particularly nuclear power, which remains dangerous and toxic––and which experts agree and Google itself admits has been scaling too slowly to make a difference in time. Our report concludes that the company is unlikely to achieve any emissions reductions by 2030.
Google is draining water stores:
- From 2016 to 2024, Google’s “water withdrawal,” which measures how much water they take out of aquifers and reservoirs, increased 340%, to 11 billion gallons. This is more water than 750,000 households, or more people than the entire city of Phoenix, Arizona, use for a year of daily showers.