US tech firms successfully lobbied EU to keep datacentre emissions secret | Microsoft

An investigation has found that Microsoft and other US tech companies successfully lobbied the EU to hide the environmental impact of their data centres, demanding that a database of green metrics spelled out almost verbatim in EU rules be blocked from public view.

The privacy clause, which the European Commission added almost verbatim to its 2024 proposal after industry lobbying, prevents scrutiny of the pollution emitted by individual data centres. It leaves researchers with only national summaries of energy footprints.

The rise of artificially intelligent chatbots, combined with energy hunger met in part by burning fossil gas, has created a boom in the construction of chip-filled warehouses. Legal experts warn that the blanket privacy clause could run afoul of EU transparency rules and the Aarhus convention on public access to environmental information.

“I don’t remember a case like this in twenty years,” said Prof Jerzy Jendrośka, who spent 19 years overseeing the convention over the organization and teaches environmental law at the University of Opole in Poland. “This clearly does not appear to be in compliance with the contract.”

Documents received by Search EuropeThe independent journalism co-operative, which carried out the research in collaboration with the Guardian and other media partners, shows the rules are already being used to shield data centers from scrutiny.

In an email last year referencing the confidentiality clause, a senior commission official reminded national authorities of their obligation to “keep confidential all information and key performance indicators relating to individual data centres”.

“It is really important to reiterate this point as the Commission has already received several requests from the media or the public for access to documents related to the data,” the official said. So far, all these requests have been rejected.”

The US and China are leading the global AI boom, but even in Europe data centers are being built at a dizzying pace. The EU aims to triple its data center capacity over the next five to seven years as it seeks to position itself as a global leader in artificial intelligence.

To increase transparency, the commission updated the energy efficiency directive in 2023 to require data center operators to report data on key performance indicators. As further guidance, he suggested publishing “aggregate” environmental measurements.

But during public consultations in January 2024, tech companies pushed for all individual information in data centers to be classified as confidential, citing commercial interests. The request means the data cannot be accessed even through freedom of information requests.

The final text of the article, which differs by just a few words from the industry’s demands, says: “The Commission and the relevant member states shall keep confidential all information and key performance indicators relating to individual data centers transmitted to the database… Such information shall be considered confidential information affecting the commercial interests of operators and data center owners.”

Industry presentations during the public engagement show that the groups lobbying for the change were Microsoft; DigitalEurope, an industry organization whose members include Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta; and Video Games Europe, whose members include Microsoft and Netflix.

It’s an example of how the tech industry is factoring in the shift toward using more energy, said Ben Youriev, a researcher at InfluenceMap, a nonprofit that tracks corporate lobbying.

He said: “While the industry had previously been vocal in its support for clean energy and emissions reductions, many firms have since remained silent. Instead, they appear to be prioritizing the rapid build-out of data center infrastructure globally over supporting clean energy and rapid emissions reductions.”

DigitalEurope did not respond to a request for comment. The Commission and Video Games Europe declined to comment.

Microsoft said it supports greater transparency around data centers because sustainability disclosures can help achieve better outcomes and build public trust. A spokesman said: “We are taking further steps to increase openness while protecting confidential business information.”

The EU executive sees the regulation as the first step in creating a common EU rating scheme for data centres. In the second phase, where public consultation on the legislation will end this month, it plans to publish sustainability scores from its database to “facilitate comparison of different data centers in the same region and to encourage new designs or appropriate efficiency in data centers.” Under current proposals, the majority of information reported by operators would remain confidential.

The commission’s internal position is that making individual data center information public could lead operators to stop reporting sustainability metrics, according to people familiar with the matter. However, EU data shows that only 36% of eligible data centers comply with current reporting requirements.

The industry has “a real interest in keeping the numbers secret,” said Alex de Vries-Gao, a researcher at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam who has often had to rely on aggregate data when trying to measure the environmental footprint of artificial intelligence.

“Publicly available information is extremely limited. You often have to bend over backwards to get any numbers,” he said.

The EU is obliged under the Aarhus convention to ensure that environmental information is systematically made available to the public by authorities.

Luc Lavrysen, former president of the Belgian constitutional court and retired professor of environmental law at Ghent University, said the confidentiality clause “clearly violates” EU transparency rules and the Aarhus convention.

Kristina Irion, associate professor of information law at the University of Amsterdam, reached the same conclusion. He said the “blanket presumption of privacy” wrongly benefits corporate interests over public access to at least some of the data.

“What deserves to be protected as confidential information affecting the business interests of data center companies should be determined on a case-by-case basis,” he said.