Carbon dioxide emissions from data centers will amount to 2.5 billion tons by 2030

The data center boom is expected to push the industry’s carbon emissions to 2.5 billion tons by the end of the decade. And this will accelerate investments in decarbonization, writes the Reuters news agency, citing research data from Morgan Stanley.

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The report said that major technology companies such as Google, Microsoft, Meta✴ Platforms and Amazon are driving the rapid development of energy-intensive data centers to expand the capabilities of artificial intelligence and cloud computing technologies. At the same time, companies are fulfilling their previous promises to reduce CO₂ emissions by 2030.

«This creates a large market for decarbonization solutions,” says the Morgan Stanley report, which was compiled based on the results of the study. It also said that greenhouse gas emissions from the global data center industry account for approximately 40% of total US emissions for the year.

The study found that the emergence of large data centers is driving increased investment in clean energy, energy-efficient equipment and so-called “green” building materials. Carbon capture, storage and use (CCUS) technologies and technologies for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are also expected to gain momentum as big tech companies try to make good on earlier promises to cut emissions.