Google's emissions rose 18% last year as AI pushed its power use up 37%
Google's 2026 environmental report shows target emissions 81% above 2019, the largest jump in electricity use in its history, and a goal it calls "getting harder."
Google’s emissions counted toward its climate targets rose 18% in 2025, according to the company’s 2026 Environmental Report. They now sit 81% above 2019, the baseline Google promised to cut in half by 2030.
Electricity use rose 37% in a single year. Trellis reported it as the largest increase in Google’s history, and power consumption is now up about 250% since 2019.
“Faster than the grid is decarbonizing”
Google’s chief sustainability officer, Kate Brandt, gave the reason in the company’s own announcement: “our AI infrastructure buildout is currently accelerating faster than the grid is decarbonizing.”
Most of the growth sits in Google’s supply chain. Scope 3 emissions, about 80% of the total, rose 25%, ESG Dive and ESG Today reported. The share of Google’s electricity that was carbon-free on an hourly basis slipped to about 65%, from 66% the year before.
The report itself says “reaching our climate moonshot is getting harder.” The goal is still net zero across Google’s operations and value chain by 2030.
What the company says
Google says its operational emissions (Scope 1 and market-based Scope 2) fell 2%, that it signed more than 12 gigawatts of new clean energy in 2025, matched 100% of its electricity with renewable purchases for a ninth year, and replenished about 78% of the freshwater it consumed.
Sources
- Read our 11th annual Environmental Report, Google, June 30, 2026
- Google's emissions continue to climb due to AI buildout, ESG Dive, July 2, 2026
- Google's AI expansion weighs heavily on climate goals, Trellis, June 30, 2026
- Google Says Moonshot Climate Goals 'Getting Harder' to Achieve, ESG Today, July 1, 2026
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