Apple’s AI Ambitions Leave Big Questions Over Its Climate Goals
1 min read
Summary
Despite Apple reducing its carbon emissions by more than 60% since 2015, its ambitions for carbon neutrality by 2030 are coming up against difficulties maintaining this reduction while pushing forward with AI innovations, according to an article in Wired.
It reports that Apple’s per-phone emissions went up from 82kg CO2e in 2020 to 45kg in 2024, a reduction of 40%, despite the company’s 2030 net-zero pledge.
The author points out that Apple’s AI ambitions are energy-hungry, and other AI giants like Google, Amazon and Microsoft are also struggling to keep their emissions down.
Apple’s ideals are also being tested by plans to shift iPhone assembly to India, where the company is striving to get its suppliers to adopt more renewable energy and its manufacturing facilities are being called out by Climate Risk Horizons as having poor renewable energy ratios.
