Opinion | How AI giants can help Asian suppliers make a clean energy transition

The likes of Microsoft, Google and Nvidia can invest in clean energy, boost suppliers’ renewables capacity and advocate for better policies

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Google spelled out in heliostats at a joint project solar energy farm in the Mojave Desert near the California-Nevada border in 2014. Tech giants must take responsibility for their climate impact worldwide, rather than simply exporting their climate impact abroad. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:30pm, 10 Jan 2025

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the world but also driving up electricity consumption and carbon emissions.

Last May, Microsoft said its emissions had increased by nearly 30 per cent since 2020, which it attributed in part to AI-related infrastructure and hardware, such as data centres and chips. In July, Google said its emissions had shot up by 48 per cent over the past five years, highlighting “the uncertainty around the future environmental impact of AI” as a challenge to the company’s climate targets.

But if anyone can rein in AI emissions, it is the companies that created it. Ample opportunities exist for tech giants such as Google, Microsoft and Nvidia to increase their renewable energy use, but they must prioritise emissions reduction across their supply chains.

By 2030, Greenpace projects that electricity consumption from chipmaking alone will reach what all of Australia consumed in 2021. AI leaders must take aggressive action to meet the growing electricity demand with renewable energy.

In East Asia, the climate impact of AI is especially pronounced, as US tech giants have long outsourced their manufacturing needs to third-party suppliers in the region. Leading electronics manufacturers in East Asia, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, derive more than two-thirds of their electricity from coal, gas and other fossil fuel sources.

But US tech giants can take a series of clear steps to help their manufacturing partners achieve 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.