What a Joke: Big Tech on the Path to Net Zero
Big Tech’s promises to achieve net-zero emissions are colliding with the energy demands of the AI boom. Carbon footprints at Google and Meta continue to rise, raising uncomfortable questions about whether their climate commitments were ever realistic, says Francis Menton.
Google Headquarters in Mountain View (CA). (Source: Shutterstock)
Francis Menton
3 August 2026
Back in July 2024, I had a post titled “Big Tech On The Path To Net Zero.” Here was the introductory paragraph:
Among the adherents to the cult of climate change, nobody can claim a higher level of sanctimony than the Big Tech behemoths — the likes of Google, Microsoft and Meta. These new economic titans fancy themselves to be totally unlike the dirty and grubby industrial companies of the past, like the steel, automobile or oil producers with their belching smokestacks. Each of these new tech powerhouses loudly proclaims its sacred and unwavering commitment to “net zero” emissions by some early date, typically 2030.
At the time of that post, all three of those Big Tech behemoths, besides maintaining their own supposed paths to “net zero,” were also engaged to one degree or another in censoring and/or de-monetizing and/or downgrading anybody who dared to deviate from the so-called “climate consensus” — whatever that may be.
And as they censored and de-monetized anyone who deviated from the climate religion, each of those tech giants published their own annual “environment” or “sustainability” reports proclaiming their own strict adherence to the official orthodoxy. My 2024 post linked to the 2024 Reports of Google and Microsoft, and the then-most-recent 2023 Report of Meta. Those Google and Meta Reports can be found here and here; the Microsoft 2024 Report seems to have mysteriously disappeared from the internet.
AI Craze
In 2024, the AI craze and the accelerated build-out of infrastructure by the tech giants was just getting going. Today, all of them are engaged in a mad race to build the most and the fastest. In this light, the bloviation of the 2023 and 2024 “sustainability” reports makes truly entertaining reading today. Here are a few excerpts from the intro to the Google 2024 Report:
Since our earliest days, we’ve been on an ambitious journey to help build a more sustainable future. . . . To help minimize our environmental footprint, we’ve built world-leading efficient infrastructure for the AI era. . . . We strive to build the world’s most energy-efficient computing infrastructure. . . . In 2017, Google became the first major company to match 100% of our annual electricity consumption on a global basis with renewable energy, which we’ve achieved every year since [what does that mean?]. . . . Building on our first two decades of progress, in 2020 we launched our third decade of climate action—our most ambitious yet. . . . We have a bold goal to reach net-zero emissions across all of our operations and value chain by 2030. . . .
And from the Meta 2023 “Sustainability” Report:
We are now reaching toward the goals of net zero emissions across our value chain and becoming water positive throughout our operations, aiming to achieve both of these milestones in 2030. Meta’s net zero in 2030 goal focuses on embedding sustainability into everything we do, whether designing products, commuting, selecting construction materials or working with suppliers to set their own net zero targets. For example, through our Net Zero program, we work closely with suppliers to determine their Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, set reduction targets and promote strategic action. . . . We are committed to protecting what is truly important: The well-being of people and our planet. . . . [We] take bold climate action by minimizing our footprint, championing renewable energy, restoring water resources, engaging our suppliers and supporting climate justice.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
More blah blah
Well, fast forward to July 2026 — with the AI and data center build-out in full swing — and Google is just out with the 2026 version of its Report. Here is a link to the Google 2026 Report — 116 pages long. You would think that they would just give up and walk away from this nonsense, but instead they try to keep up the brave talk. The Executive Summary is all about mis-direction:
At Google, we’re deeply committed to responsibly managing the environmental footprint of our operations and unlocking the power of AI for the planet. . . . The AI revolution has made the last five years especially transformative, and we’re proud of the progress we’ve achieved. In 2025 alone, we signed agreements for over 12 GW of net-new clean energy. By combining this record-breaking procurement with our industry-leading infrastructure, we’re working to ensure that every megawatt is used as efficiently as possible. . . . It was with this same bold spirit that, at the beginning of the decade, we set net zero and 24/7 carbon-free energy (CFE) moonshots that were intentionally aspirational and designed to push the frontiers of what’s possible in energy systems and data center operations. . . Our moonshots pushed us to meet this moment, and the scale of our impact has similarly undergone a step-change. In 2025, we contracted for eight times more clean energy than we did in 2019. Furthermore, the emissions we successfully avoided in 2025 represent seven times the size of our 2019 ambition-based carbon footprint. . . .
More blah-di-blah-di-blah. Guys, your promise was not to procure more “clean energy” or to “make every megawatt as efficient as possible.” It was “net zero” by 2030. Any progress on that?
Joke
To get the answer you’ll need to make it all the way to page 69, to a section titled “Progress update/carbon footprint”:
In 2025, our total ambition-based emissions were approximately 14.5 million tCO2e. . . . Our total ambition-based emissions increased 18% compared to 2024—primarily driven by increases in supply chain activities that supported the rapid expansion of our business. We recognize that our climate impact has been growing alongside the unprecedented growth of AI, and we’re actively working to minimize this impact.
What a joke.
Over at Meta, they continue to be a year behind in the reporting. But the basic story is no different. Here is a link to their (most recent) “2025 Sustainability Report.” Here’s the same sort of mis-direction in the introduction:
We are taking a multifaceted approach to implementing emissions reduction strategies that includes procuring clean and renewable energy and exploring innovative technologies like energy storage and geothermal energy. As a result of our clean and renewable energy procurement, we have reduced our emissions by 23.8 million metric tons (M MT) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) since 2021.
I’ve gone all the way through this Report and I can’t find any actual comparison of 2025 emissions versus 2023. Maybe I missed it. On page 70 there is a link labelled “environmental metrics.” It doesn’t even say what is there, but if you go there you will find a chart headed “Total GHG Emissions.” Those are reported to have been 7,443,182 MTCO2e in 2023, and 8,150,595 in 2024 (most recent year reported). That’s an increase of about 9.5% in that one year.
Yahoo
And here’s the latest about Meta, not from Meta itself, but from Yahoo Finance on July 24:
Meta quits clean energy pledge amid gas-powered data center push. Meta has abandoned a global pledge by leading companies to source all of their electricity from renewable sources, the social media giant confirmed Friday. Meta joined the pledge in 2016 according to a Wayback Machine archive of RE100’s website. The departure comes amid a frenzied data center buildout by leading tech companies. Meta has struck deals paying utilities to bring new natural gas power plants online, including 10 to power its Hyperion data center in Louisiana alone.
I understand that a little hypocrisy is inevitable in this world. But after the level of sanctimony that these guys have engaged in, let alone censorship of others, nobody should forget that it was all a scam from the outset.
This article was published first on Manhattan Contrarian on 30 July 2026
Francis Menton
As of December 31, 2015, Francis Menton retired after 40+ years (31 as a partner) with the law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. After that, he could devote more time to his blog Manhattan Contrarian. He writes ‘rebellious’ posts from the West Village neighborhood in Manhattan, where, according to Menton, they suffer “from a stifling political and ideological orthodoxy”. You can follow Menton on Twitter by clicking this link.
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Maybe a title
Voorbeeld: However, some people are so concerned about the ways to push climate change and CO₂ reduction that they are going out of their minds, according to Lindzen. “They’re showing this temperature graph. And I think they’re realizing people are saying, you know, you draw it like this (going sharply up – HS), but this is one degree. That’s not much. And they’re worried: this is not getting people worried enough. So they’re saying: well, showing them a flood, showing them a storm, that would be visually convincing,” he says. And as it happens, there are always places on Earth that suffer from extreme weather in a way that occurs only once in a hundred years. “And people don’t figure it out that a once in a hundred years event is occurring some place on Earth every month, or five places every month. You have a picture of that. You now put that on television and you can associate ‘climate change’ with something dramatic,” Lindzen says. “The fact that they had to go to that to convince people suggests it was a fake issue because they’re clearly using something that would be normally called false advertising,” he adds.
Voorbeeldtekst: However, some people are so concerned about the ways to push climate change and CO₂ reduction that they are going out of their minds, according to Lindzen. “They’re showing this temperature graph. And I think they’re realizing people are saying, you know, you draw it like this (going sharply up – HS), but this is one degree. That’s not much. And they’re worried: this is not getting people worried enough. So they’re saying: well, showing them a flood, showing them a storm, that would be visually convincing,” he says. And as it happens, there are always places on Earth that suffer from extreme weather in a way that occurs only once in a hundred years. “And people don’t figure it out that a once in a hundred years event is occurring some place on Earth every month, or five places every month. You have a picture of that. You now put that on television and you can associate ‘climate change’ with something dramatic,” Lindzen says. “The fact that they had to go to that to convince people suggests it was a fake issue because they’re clearly using something that would be normally called false advertising,” he adds.
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