Google has announced a notable achievement in its ongoing efforts to mitigate its climate impact, reporting a 12% reduction in carbon emissions from its data centres in 2024. This achievement comes despite a substantial increase in energy consumption, as detailed in the company’s latest 2025 Environmental Report.
While Google has successfully addressed data centre emissions, the report indicates a continued rise in the company’s overall carbon footprint in 2024. This increase is primarily driven by a significant surge in emissions from its supply chain, with Scope 3 emissions rising by over 20% during the year.
Google’s environmental objectives include reaching net zero emissions across its operations and value chain by 2030. The company has also committed to its 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy (CFE) ambition, aiming to run its business entirely on carbon-free energy by 2030, ensuring a match between electricity demand and CFE supply every hour, globally.
Despite these commitments, Google acknowledges the increasing complexity and challenges in achieving these goals, citing factors such as the slower deployment of carbon-free energy technologies, rapid growth in energy demand driven by AI, policy uncertainties, and some regions’ early stages of decarbonisation.
The report highlights external factors that could impact the cost, feasibility, and timeline of Google’s progress. To maintain momentum, Google plans to explore a range of solutions, balancing cost, quality, and the speed of emissions reductions.
The reduction in data centre emissions marks a significant turnaround for Google, following a 37% increase in Scope 2 emissions—associated with purchased electricity—reported in the previous year, despite a 27% rise in electricity demand from its data centres. The key factor in decoupling emissions from electricity use in 2024 was the integration of clean energy sources, with 25 contracted projects adding 2.5 GW of clean energy.
Google’s clean energy procurement efforts suggest a promising trend. Since 2010, the company has signed over 170 agreements to purchase more than 22 GW of clean energy. In 2024 alone, Google signed agreements for over 8 GW of clean energy generation, significantly exceeding its incremental load growth from the previous year. The company is also exploring technologies beyond renewables, such as enhanced geothermal, advanced nuclear, and biomass solutions.
Google emphasises its efforts to enhance data centre energy efficiency, noting that its data centres now deliver over six times more computing power per unit of electricity than five years ago.
The report also highlights challenges in addressing broader value chain emissions. Scope 3 emissions account for 73% of Google’s total carbon footprint and are currently 25% above 2019 levels, after a 22% increase in 2024. The location of hardware component suppliers, particularly in Asia Pacific where energy grids rely heavily on fossil fuels, is a significant factor in this rise.
To address supply chain emissions, Google is implementing initiatives such as its Energy Assessment Tool and Google Clean Energy Addendum (CEA), which encourages suppliers to achieve a 100% clean electricity match by the end of 2029. Additionally, Google is investing in developing clean energy sources in technology supply chain regions, as demonstrated by its recent investment in BlackRock’s New Green Power to support 1 GW of renewable energy projects in Taiwan.
In a statement accompanying the report, Google’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Kate Brandt, reflected on the company’s progress and understanding of achieving its climate goals, emphasising the importance of applying resources and capabilities to maximise impact.
[Click here](https://sustainability.google/google-2025-environmental-report/) to access the report.