Big Tech Datacentres Now Emit a Third of France's Carbon
Datacentres drive up big tech's carbon emissions to a third of those of France
Microsoft, Amazon, and Google saw their collective carbon emissions rise by nearly a fifth last year, driven by a massive boom in datacentre construction for AI. Their total output now equals about one-third of France's emissions, challenging their net zero pledges. Despite claiming progress, these giants are outsourcing the digital carbon footprint of other corporations while struggling to find enough carbon credits to offset their rapid infrastructure expansion.
Claims by Microsoft, Amazon and Google about their clouds being ecologically friendly and sustainable are a marketing strategy.
- defrost
In related current news:
Irish datacenters now guzzle 23% of the country's electricity https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2026/07/11/irish-datacen...
The latest figures from Ireland's Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that giant server farms now account for nearly a quarter of the country's metered electricity consumption.
Their share rose to 23 percent in 2025 after passing 20 percent in 2023 and 14 percent in 2021 – up from just 5 percent way back in 2015.
Luckily this will all be offset by the pot of gold at the end of the AI rainbow.
- mike_hock
It literally has only downsides except some convenience for people who don't want to think and don't want to work.
- garganzol
For a context: France relies heavily on automotive transport, plus it's a home to enormous agricultural sector, tractors are literally everywhere in the country during the summer. To a certain degree, structurally it resembles USA a lot.
- cold_pizz4
We don't really need the French on the other hand, how could we live without AI?
- Muromec
But... Datacenters don't burn anything, right? Powerplants do and we try to switch all the transport and heating and whatever to be electric.
So the answer is to build the damb nuclear power and a lot of it and price CO2 emissions at the actual cost of sucking the thing back out if the atmosphere
- amazingamazing
legality of the datacenters aside, I wonder why countries don't at least demand that they're totally carbon neutral or free. it's possible today. it's not like it's sci-fi.
- ChrisArchitect
Related:
Microsoft latest report shows 25% emissions raised due to AI data centers
- bamboozled
Man, we are cooked, literally