A Fight Over Big Tech’s Emissions Has the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Caught in the Crossfire

The article discusses an ongoing ideological conflict among major tech companies—primarily Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Salesforce—over how to account for the carbon emissions of AI data centers within the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s (GHGP) Scope 2 standards. Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from purchased electricity, which have surged due to AI-driven data center growth. The GHGP recently moved closer to adopting a mandatory hourly accounting method for electricity emissions, a system strongly supported by Google and Microsoft. This method matches electricity use hour-by-hour with locally produced, carbon-free power, aligning with their ambitious clean energy goals. However, this shift has sparked controversy and intense lobbying, with other stakeholders advocating for an alternative "emissions-first" approach. This camp, including Amazon, Meta, and Salesforce, supports maximizing annual emission reductions through renewable energy certificates (RECs), even if the clean energy is not generated locally or matched hourly. They also promote "emissionality," a method that ranks RECs