Chinese tech giants trail on renewable energy use, and AI will put them further behind
- Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu took the top three spots in Greenpeace’s renewable energy scorecard for China’s cloud providers
China’s leading technology firms have made limited progress in delivering on their renewable energy goals, as the sector’s power consumption is expected to surge on the back of demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud services, according to a report from Greenpeace East Asia. The group urged the tech giants to take firmer action on addressing climate change.
The environmental group released a report on Thursday that tracked the renewable energy use of China’s top 25 cloud providers and data centre operators, which together account for more than half of the country’s cloud market and more than 60 per cent of the data centre market.
Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings and Baidu took the top three spots in the ranking of 10 cloud providers for their purchase of renewable energy, carbon reduction measures and targets, and data transparency. GDS, Chindata and VNET Group topped the list of 15 data centre operators for their renewable energy procurement.
“Over the past two years, some top companies have reported significant breakthroughs in their renewable energy consumption,” said Lyu Xin, a climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia. “However, advancements have been uneven across the industry.”
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Chinese AI-generated cartoon series broadcast on state television
The report also found that only eight out of these 25 companies have committed to 100 per cent renewable energy use by 2030, and only six have set carbon neutrality goals for their direct and indirect emissions from the purchased energy, the so-called scope 1 and scope 2 emissions, by the end of the decade.
