Chinese tech giant Baidu sourced just five percent of the energy used in its data centers from renewables in the last year, according to a report from Greenpeace.
The company lags behind rivals Alibaba and Tencent, both of which have made more progress towards meeting their renewable energy goals, according to the environmental group.
Greenpeace’s Clean Cloud 2024 report, published today, analyzed data on ten Chinese cloud service providers and 15 of the country's top data center operators.
It notes that progress has been made on renewable energy, with five of the ranked companies reporting annual renewable energy ratios that exceeded 10 percent, compared to just one company at the time of Greenpeace’s June 2022 ranking.
But it says there are significant disparities between providers, with Baidu receiving just five percent of its power from renewables. This compares to 15.4 percent from Alibaba and 12.4 percent from Tencent.
Baidu, which aims to be carbon neutral by 2030, announced a $1 billion ESG bond in 2021, pledging to invest the proceeds in sustainability projects. But this has apparently yet to pay dividends when it comes to its energy consumption. DCD has contacted the company for comment on the Greenpeace report.
Xin Lyu, Greenpeace East Asia climate and energy campaigner, said: “AI is driving a surge in tech sector emissions, and pressure is growing for leading tech companies to reduce their climate impact.
“China’s tech giants appear to be taking note, and over the past two years, some top companies have reported significant breakthroughs in their renewable energy consumption. However, advancements have been uneven across the industry, and companies such as Baidu have made less progress toward meeting their own climate goals compared to their peers.”
The report says Alibaba has purchased 1.61 billion kWh of renewable energy since the start of 2024, the highest volume reported by any Chinese cloud provider.
GDS received the highest score in the ranking of data center operators, with a renewable energy ratio of more than 38 percent. In contrast, VNet Group, which operates data centers for Microsoft 365, reported a renewable energy ratio of approximately 4 percent in 2023, the report says.
Eight out of 25 companies in the ranking have committed to achieving 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, with only ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, having not disclosed data about its carbon emissions or energy usage.
“The trend toward decarbonization of China’s tech industry is unstoppable, but some companies are lagging behind,” Lyu said. “In particular, Baidu must ramp up renewable energy consumption to meet its own climate goals. Likewise, ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, needs to disclose its environmental data as a first step toward achieving its climate commitments.”
