Apple’s AI Ambitions Leave Big Questions Over Its Climate Goals

Here’s a simple question: Is nan existent apical iPhone amended for nan situation than nan apical iPhone was 5 years ago?

Let’s return nan iPhone Pro series. If we’re looking astatine recycled and renewable materials, it’s an easy yes. Compare nan iPhone 11 Pro, released successful September 2019, pinch nan iPhone 16 Pro, released successful September 2024, and location has been bully progress—from a fewer smaller components and packaging to now astatine much than 25 percent of nan full phone. There's activity to do, of course, but that's what you’d expect astatine Apple’s halfway constituent to its 2030 extremity of c neutrality.

But what nan iPhone is made retired of is only 1 portion of nan picture. Take a look astatine nan c emissions for each iPhone’s life cycle, including everything from materials to nan energy for manufacturing, proscription and charging, and things get much complicated. The AI title is only compounding nan problem.

In 2020, nan twelvemonth Apple group retired its net-zero ambiance goals, per-phone emissions were 82 kilograms CO2E (carbon dioxide equivalent) for nan iPhone 12 Pro. After a crisp alteration to 69 kilograms successful nan iPhone 13 Pro, advancement that Apple attributes to its Supplier Clean Energy Program, things commencement to slow—and then, pinch nan iPhone 15 Pro, stall almost completely.

It’s astatine this constituent that Apple changed its reporting successful a measurement that makes it harder to understand year-on-year improvements—moving to a comparison versus a 2015 baseline of 92 kilograms instead. So erstwhile nan iPhone 16 Pro arrived successful 2024 pinch nan aforesaid level of emissions arsenic nan 15 Pro, it was still positioned arsenic having greenhouse state emissions savings of 30 percent alternatively showing those savings astatine a comparative standstill, twelvemonth connected year.

So while, yes, nan existent apical iPhone is amended for nan situation than 5 years agone (and nan figures for immoderate of nan guidelines models show moreover greater improvements), astir of that advancement was made betwixt 2020 and 2022. As Apple has pushed guardant pinch AI and introduced emissions-heavy technological innovations to support it, nan institution has been near mostly treading water. All while, successful contrast, 2023’s Fairphone 5 managed to get its life rhythm emissions down to conscionable 42 kilograms. (Fairphone will merchandise nan figures for its newer Fairphone 6 successful October.)

The wider discourse here, though, is that nan location is connected fire. Google’s full greenhouse state emissions increased an astonishing 48 percent betwixt 2019 and 2023—in portion owed to its energy-guzzling AI information centers—and past twelvemonth it dropped its c neutrality promise (though it still claims it will beryllium astatine net-zero emissions by 2030). Elsewhere, Microsoft’s full emissions increased by 23 percent from 2020 to 2024, which it attributed to maturation successful AI and unreality description , Amazon’s shipping and transportation emissions keep going up, and Samsung is moving down connected its much constricted net-zero aims.

As nan kids say, nan barroom is successful hell. At slightest Apple hasn’t backtracked; Apple’s still playing. But arsenic Tim Cook doubles down connected Apple's committedness to AI, tin Cupertino support up pinch its ambiance goals while pushing guardant successful its AI ambitions?

Slowing Progress

In a remark to WIRED, Apple didn’t precisely admit nan challenges it’s facing. “As information intelligibly show, Apple is connected way to meet our eager extremity to beryllium c neutral crossed our full footprint by 2030,” it said.

“We’ve reduced our world emissions by much than 60 percent since 2015 and worked pinch our suppliers to bring astir 18 gigawatts of cleanable power online crossed our proviso chain. We’re laser-focused connected continuing this advancement pinch much collaboration and invention successful nan years ahead.”

However, astatine nan September 2024 iPhone launch, Apple was beautiful quiet astir its sustainability progress. There were only a fewer mentions of nan recycled materials utilized crossed its hardware and its packaging—a stark opposition to nan five-minute chat pinch Octavia Spencer arsenic Mother Nature that opened 2023’s event.

Then, in April 2025, Reuters reported that Apple had chartered a cargo pitchy pinch a capacity of 100 tons retired of Chennai airdrome successful Tamil Nadu, India. It was nan sixth chartered formation connected nan way since March, designed to hit Trump’s tariffs and get an estimated 1.5 cardinal iPhones into the United States, fast.

This mightiness look for illustration a questionable move for a institution striving for c neutrality, but Lena Chang, ambiance and power programme head astatine Greenpeace East Asia, says things for illustration this are really nan slightest concerning rumor facing Apple's 2030 pledge: “It’s ironic to constituent retired [the cargo jets], but proscription emissions are a mini portion of nan proviso chain.”

Instead, Greenpeace points to different forces it believes are slowing Apple’s progress. According to Apple’s 2025 Environmental Progress Report, reductions successful its full “Scope 3” manufacturing emissions—the indirect greenhouse state emissions extracurricular of nan company’s power but created owed to its operations—slowed to a 13 percent alteration betwixt September 2023 and September 2024 versus an balanced 30 percent alteration from 2022 to 2023.

To explicate this, Chang and her squad are focused connected what they spot arsenic nan spread betwixt Apple’s commitments and those of its suppliers successful Asia, producing an easy digestible ranking of nan caller ambiance advancement and commitments of nan 5 awesome last assembly suppliers to Apple: Foxconn, Luxshare Precision, Wistron, Compal and Pegatron.

Of them all, only Wistron has commitments that align pinch Apple’s (100 percent renewable power by 2030), but nan institution hasn’t released immoderate information for 2024 arsenic yet. Pegatron is only committed to 50 percent successful nan aforesaid time, pinch Foxconn and Compal not hoping to make 100 percent until 2040 and 2050 respectively.  (WIRED requested remark from each 5 of these suppliers and received nary reply.)

Chang points to nan ambition of Apple’s 2 Clean Energy Funds successful nan region, worthy astir $400 million, but wants to spot stronger accountability from nan institution regarding its suppliers successful mainland China and Taiwan.

“We are talking pinch immoderate suppliers of Apple, and they really kick that ‘yeah, we spot there's money there, but there's conscionable not capable inducement for america to initiate a project,’” Chang explains. “We request suppliers to return much initiative, and we request stronger enforcement from Apple, whether it's monitoring connected a year-to-year ground aliases strengthening its reporting system to really push its suppliers to adopt much renewable energy.”

This problem now stretches to India too, alongside Vietnam, arsenic Apple scrambles to shift nan assembly of nan iPhones bound for nan US, owed to instability astir world tariffs. Foxconn accounts for a ample stock of nan section iPhone assembly successful nan region, but Tata Electronics, a subsidiary of Tata Group, is increasing successful value aft respective large investments. (WIRED requested remark and sustainability information from Tata Electronics; nan institution said it cannot accommodate nan request.)

“Tata Electronics itself, arsenic a subsidiary, has not said thing yet connected climate—anything significant,” says Ashish Fernandes, CEO and laminitis of Climate Risk Horizons, a deliberation vessel covering India’s power transition. Tata Group has various ambiance commitments and was c neutral for its power usage for a period, but Fernandes says it isn’t clear really these effect nan iPhone assembly operations—a deficiency of clarity he believes can’t continue: “If you want to manufacture for Apple, there’s going to beryllium a batch of scrutiny.”

It isn’t alone. From nan 14 suppliers that person manufacturing units for Apple successful India, Climate Risk Horizons interrogator Simran Kalra says, only 3 person specified their renewable power stock successful India—and it isn’t peculiarly bully news.

FIH Mobile’s 2024 ESG report showed a renewable power ratio for its 2 plants successful Tamil Nadu was 35.5 percent (FIH said it is not presently “a nonstop Apple supplier,” but nan institution has antecedently worked pinch Apple), while Flex’s was astir 27 percent successful some 2023 and 2024. As for Pegatron? Its 2022 and 2023 reports showed it utilized nary renewable power successful India astatine all.

“India is not precisely a state wherever it's difficult to get renewables going,” says Fernandes. “We’ve sewage a beautiful large home renewables manufacture already. So it should beryllium reasonably elemental for Apple to insist to its suppliers that they meet nan bulk of it from renewables and 100 percent by ‘X’ date.”

The AI Problem

However, it is nan conflict betwixt AI and ambiance goals that tin beryllium viewed arsenic nan astir “vicious cycle,” arsenic UK-based expert Jan Stryjak, who leads Counterpoint Research’s activity connected sustainability, puts it.

“AI is hugely costly erstwhile it comes to power usage and water. So a batch of companies are utilizing AI to make their operations much businesslike successful bid to usage much AI, aliases to support much AI, which successful move requires them to beryllium much power and operationally efficient. Apple is nary different.”

At first blush, Apple Intelligence astatine slightest looks to beryllium somewhat different. It intends to connection an on-device, privateness focused, possibly much climate-friendly replacement to nan cloud-based AI agents. For personification requests that request larger models, Apple points to its creation of Private Cloud Compute, hosted connected Apple silicon servers astatine nan company’s information centers, which are powered by 100 percent renewable energy.

But tin Apple standard this 100 renewable infrastructure while competing successful a section wherever it is lagging behind? According to Data Centre Map, Apple operates 16 of these information centers, pinch six much sites planned aliases nether construction. For comparison, OpenAI partner and investor Microsoft has 120-plus information centers, Amazon runs 200-plus, and Google runs 66 pinch astatine slightest 30 much planned—the very description s down immoderate of nan biggest ambiance advancement reversals.

Even arsenic a smaller, much energy-efficient AI agent, Apple Intelligence still has powerfulness trade-offs—particularly erstwhile it leans connected ChatGPT to reply immoderate hunt questions successful Siri, a business which Apple said late past year is not portion of nan Private Cloud Compute plan.

“A twelvemonth ago, erstwhile they were talking astir Apple Intelligence, it struck maine really they were doing an ‘all of nan above,’ right? They had their ain point but they could autumn backmost onto ChatGPT,” says Ben Lee, a professor astatine nan University of Pennsylvania successful nan section of electrical and systems engineering, who has antecedently consulted for Meta and Google connected sustainability.

“That suggests that they're not rather judge that nan smaller models springiness them what they want connected device,” he says. “I deliberation they're trying to create nan capacity first and foremost and past trying to fig retired ratio later.”

The way to processing much precocious AI capabilities hasn’t precisely been smooth, pinch cardinal features painfully delayed and next-gen Siri pushed further and further back—with nan upgrade now not expected until outpouring 2026. Recent Bloomberg reporting suggests that Apple activity is weighing a move to OpenAI aliases Anthropic exertion to thief yet present its AI promises for a caller type of Siri, pinch tests of these extracurricular models connected Apple’s unreality infrastructure. The mobility is: Will Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy, and societal initiatives, beryllium astatine that array erstwhile these decisions are made?

Even if she is, location is nary getting distant from nan energy needed to manufacture nan precocious semiconductor chips powering on-device Apple Intelligence (like nan A18 and A18 Pro chips) and Apple’s ain AI servers (reportedly Apple’s M4 chips arsenic of this year). “Taiwan doesn't person specified a accelerated deployment of renewable energy, and South Korea, different spot that fabricates a batch of chips, doesn't person a batch of it astatine all,” says Lee.

In March, TSMC—the Taiwan-based semiconductor chipmaker which powers flagship iPhones—put retired a 2024 report, including a conception connected ESG: There was a 19 percent increase successful greenhouse state emissions per merchandise portion versus its target of a 10 percent decrease. There was besides a 14 percent summation successful h2o usage and, drumroll please, only astir 14 percent of its utilized power came from renewables.

The TSMC property team, erstwhile asked for comment, pointed to TSMC accelerating its renewable power timeline by 10 years successful 2023, a 20-year associated procurement statement for 20,000 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy, and its business pinch Apple connected nan Restore Fund for carbon-removal projects.

But Greenpeace’s Lena Chang wants to spot TSMC investing much into Taiwan’s wind, solar, and geothermal power industries, pursuing Google’s lead there. “The mostly of TSMC’s renewable power is purchased,” she says. “They tin return nan inaugural to put more. From a passive user to a proactive prosumer, that’s what we are trying to telephone retired TSMC to do more.”

An iPhone Afterlife

Of people 1 of nan trickiest threads to lick successful each of this is nan incompatibility of building AI-capable chips for iPhones which are utilized connected mean for conscionable two and a half years earlier a customer upgrades to a caller device.

“Unlike information centers, which bargain hardware and past deploy them for very agelong lifetimes and get very precocious utilization, you don't get that successful nan user electronics side,” says Lee. “Apple would for illustration america to refresh our hardware each 2 years aliases so. So that's nan difficulty. You person nan Scope 3 emissions numbers [for nan proviso chain], past very precocious refresh rates and comparatively mediocre utilization.”

He believes that aft years of flattening successful capacity and a commoditization of general-purpose CPUs, we different would person seen a slowing down successful wide hardware refresh rates: “I deliberation AI is astir apt restarting nan cadence of refresh.”

If we proceed to get an iPhone motorboat annually, if Cupertino continues to battalion successful precocious Apple silicon into each premium instrumentality and upgrade cycles stay astatine 2.5 years, past attraction to nan afterlife of iPhones becomes much pressing. Globally, Apple makes up conscionable complete half nan full secondary smartphone market and while astir 1 successful 3 owners successful nan US resell their smartphone, that fig drops to astir one successful five successful Europe.

That's not helped by nan truth that nan magnitude Apple presently offers to retrieve traded-in iPhones is overmuch little than nan competition, says Counterpoint’s Jan Stryjak. Elsewhere, successful immoderate countries, there’s simply excessively galore different prices and gradings connected connection to make consciousness for nan mean telephone owner: “This is thing nan manufacture needs to rectify, to thief pinch giving those older iPhones that 2nd life.”

The Next Five Years

Apple appears not to beryllium unsighted to nan challenges it is facing. In April, Lisa Jackson said this successful a property merchandise connected Apple’s biology progress: “As we get person to 2030, nan activity gets moreover harder—and we’re gathering nan situation pinch innovation, collaboration, and urgency.”

Apple is ]the 3rd biggest institution successful nan world by marketplace cap. As its AI supplier strategy becomes clearer, situation charities and sustainability experts spot a number of ways that it could fortify its activity toward its 2030 ambiance goals to counteract caller innovation.

Then again, nan first and 2nd biggest companies successful nan world? Nvidia and Microsoft, 2 of nan companies astatine nan forefront of nan displacement toward AI. “We will support campaigning connected nan proviso concatenation decarbonization, particularly now location seems to beryllium nary stopping successful AI technology,” says Greenpeace’s Lena Chang. “It is really important that we support nan equilibrium betwixt AI and sustainable development.”