New Peer-Reviewed Study Finds that AI Boosts Fossil Fuels More than Renewables
New research identifies "enabled emissions" as an overlooked mechanism in AI's climate impact, much larger than the data center energy use that dominates public discourse.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new peer-reviewed study in npj Climate Action, a Nature Portfolio journal, finds that when AI is applied to accelerate progress in the fossil fuel and renewable energy sectors, respectively, its fossil fuel applications enable more emissions than its renewable energy applications avoid. These additional emissions, which the study terms “enabled emissions,” result from AI-driven fossil fuel productivity gains as artificial intelligence accelerates discovery and recovery of oil and gas deposits.
The net effect of this asymmetric AI benefit for fossil fuels is an increase in global emissions by 0.47–1.8 gigatonnes of CO₂ annually, or 1.2–4.8 percent of 2024 global energy-related emissions. Considered in isolation, these enabled emissions exceed the International Energy Agency’s estimate of current datacenter emissions by 3.3 to 13.3 times. The study was authored by Will Alpine and Holly Alpine of the Enabled Emissions Campaign, Nathan Geldner, an independent researcher, and Maksym Chepeliev of Purdue University.
Clara Vondrich, senior policy counsel for Public Citizen’s Climate Program said:
“This research exposes Big Tech as a lead accomplice to the fossil fuel industry in ways we never imagined. It’s bad enough that communities are being hammered by rising energy bills as data centers gobble up insane amounts of fossil fuel power, but now we see that those emissions are just a fraction of the climate harms Big Tech is responsible for. To be clear, oil companies are not simply using publicly available AI tools: Big Tech is entering into bilateral contracts with oil companies, and selling them proprietary tools specifically designed for the purpose of accelerating oil production.
“You can’t make this up: Big Tech companies, self-avowed climate champs for decades, are working hand-in-glove with Big Oil to find, dig, and burn more fossil fuels to make a buck.
“AI’s promise as a tool for advancing solutions to the climate crisis is fading as a cruel reality takes shape: Big tech companies are selling AI to the fossil fuel industry to accelerate our demise so they can turn a profit. These are the perverse outcomes resulting from our rigged market economy: access to cutting edge AI goes to the highest bidder and Big Oil has some of the deepest pockets in the world. Meanwhile the externalities – runaway climate change manifesting this summer as historic heat domes and fires – are never counted, except as body counts. Today, Big Tech is Big Oil’s number one accomplice.”
For comment by the study’s authors, contact:
Holly Alpine
Enabled Emissions Campaign
[email protected]