Big Tech's Lobbying Blitz Killed a Rule That Would Have Slashed Data Center Emissions

A key climate watchdog has scrapped a proposed rule that could have cut carbon emissions from data centers far faster than today's standards, after an aggressive push by tech industry groups. The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) declined to adopt a protocol that would have made it harder for companies like Amazon and Meta to use clean-energy certificates to offset pollution from gas-fired backup turbines at their massive AI data centers. These facilities, built across the U. S.

to fuel the AI boom, often strain local power grids, forcing operators to install highly polluting gas generators to keep servers running. To avoid being tagged as polluters, tech giants claim they offset that fossil fuel use by buying renewable energy certificates from solar or wind farms - sometimes located in other states or time zones. For example, a Texas data center burning gas at night can claim offset credits from solar panels generating power in California during the day. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol oversight body, which sets rules for Europe and California, argued that both the fossil fuel power and the offsetting clean energy should come from the same regional market at roughly the same time.

That would ensure accurate reporting and a "credible link" between energy use and production. SBTi initially backed that approach. But companies representing nearly $5 trillion in revenue - including Apple, Amazon, and GM - launched a lobbying campaign called "May not Shall," arguing that such time- and location-based rules were too burdensome and could discourage green investments. Google, notably, sided with the stricter hourly matching standard, as the world's largest corporate buyer of renewable energy.

Research from Princeton's Low-Carbon Technology Consortium and the European Union shows that hourly accounting could cut CO2 emissions dozens of times faster than the current system.

Source: Engadget