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Oct 2021
18m 37s

Big tech and carbon

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Google pledges to be carbon free by 2030. Ahead of next month's UN Climate Summit, the company has come out with new targets to become greener than ever. But what does that mean? Is Google supporting the energy transition away from fossil fuels or just fuelling ever greater consumption? Ed Butler speaks to the company's Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt, about how this is just the latest step in her company's aim to be a world leader in sustainability. Ian Bitterlin, a Consulting Engineer & Visiting Professor at the University of Leeds in the UK tries to quantify the amount of carbon pollution that could reasonably be attributed to data centers worldwide. And Sonya Bhonsle, the Global Head of Value Chains at CDP, the world's leading climate NGO that helps companies and cities disclose their environmental impact, tells Ed that Google scores very highly in their ratings and that the company is sending out good messages to others in the industry.

(Photo: Google's logo adorns their office in New York, Credit: Getty Images)

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