US Tech Firms Lobby EU to Preserve Datacentre Emissions Secret

Microsoft and other US technology companies successfully lobbied the European Union to conceal the environmental impact of their datacentres, according to an investigation by Investigate Europe in collaboration with the Guardian and other media partners. The lobbying effort resulted in a confidentiality clause being adopted almost verbatim from industry demands into EU regulations, blocking public access to detailed emissions data from individual datacentres.

The secrecy provision, added by the European Commission in 2024 after intense industry lobbying, prevents scrutiny of the pollution that individual datacentres emit. Researchers are now limited to national-level summaries of energy footprints, hindering accountability for pollution linked to the AI-driven boom in datacentre construction.

The rise of AI chatbots has spurred a surge in the construction of chip-filled warehouses with high power demands, which is being met in part by burning fossil gas. Legal scholars warn the blanket confidentiality clause may violate EU transparency rules and the Aarhus Convention on public access to environmental information.

“In two decades, recall a comparable case,” said Prof Jerzy Jendrośka, who spent 19 years on the body overseeing the Aarhus Convention and teaches environmental law at the University of Opole in Poland. “This clearly seems not to be in line with the convention.”

Documents obtained by Investigate Europe show that during public consultations in January 2024, tech companies pushed to classify all individual datacentre data as confidential, citing commercial interests. The final regulation mirrors these demands, stating that the commission and member states must keep such information secret to protect commercial interests.

Groups lobbying for the change included Microsoft, DigitalEurope (representing companies like Google, Amazon, and Meta), and Video Games Europe (with members such as Microsoft and Netflix). An email from a senior commission official cited the secrecy clause last year, reminding national authorities of their obligation to “keep confidential all information and key performance indicators for individual datacentres.” The official noted that various requests for access to documents by the media or the public had been refused.

The US and China have led the global AI boom, but even in Europe, datacentres are being built at breakneck speed. The EU aims to triple its datacentre capacity in the next five to seven years.