NVIDIA markets artificial intelligence as a climate saviour, but new research by Greenpeace International and a consortium of civil society partners reveals a starkly different reality. Behind the tech giant’s sustainability messaging lies a staggering carbon footprint: NVIDIA’s indirect Scope 3 emissions have surged by 725% since 2020. Furthermore, undisclosed emissions from operating sold chips could add up to 21 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2025.
The briefing debunks three core greenwashing tactics used by NVIDIA: claiming AI yields a net climate benefit, promoting data center demand response as a renewable driver, and masking skyrocketing energy consumption behind efficiency gains. Far from driving a clean energy transition, NVIDIA hardware powers energy-hungry data centers, such as a proposed Ohio facility backed by one of the world’s largest gas plants.
Because NVIDIA relies on East Asian manufacturing supply chains heavily reliant on fossil fuels, it effectively offloads its ecological burden onto lower-income nations while concentrating AI wealth. This pattern reflects a system of tech colonialism that accelerates environmental injustice through energy strain, water depletion, and land degradation.
To address its climate impact, NVIDIA must stop relying on greenwashing illusions. Greenpeace demands that NVIDIA take direct responsibility by investing deeply in new renewable energy global capacity and expanding its 100% renewable energy target across its entire manufacturing supply chain by 2030.
Download the report:
NVIDIA’s AI climate hoax: New analysis on NVIDIA’s rising emissions and greenwashing
About the author
Ketan Joshi is an analyst, writer and communicator specialising in clean energy, corporate accountability and climate advocacy. He has worked with government renewable energy agencies, research bodies including the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia, and is the author of Windfall: unlocking a fossil free future. He was lead author on The AI Climate Hoax (2026) and Energy Vampires (2026, Greenpeace Australia Pacific).
Partner organisations
This research was published in collaboration with a coalition of climate, tech and accountability organisations: Kairos Fellowship, Stand.earth, Beyond Fossil Fuels, Friends of the Earth, Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD), Green Screen Coalition and the Green Web Foundation.
