Meta has abandoned a global pledge by major companies to supply all their energy from renewable sources, the social media giant confirmed on Friday.
RE100, an initiative of the UK-based non-profit Climate Group, aims to spur corporate climate action and counts Apple, Google and Microsoft among its 444 members.
The Climate Group website no longer lists Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, as a member.
The news was first reported by Recharge News, a branch of the renewable energy industry.
Meta joined the pledge in 2016 according to a Wayback Machine archive of the RE100 website.
The move comes amid a frenzy of data center construction by major tech companies. Meta has struck deals paying utilities to bring new natural gas-fired power plants online, including 10 to power its Hyperion data center in Louisiana alone.
A spokesperson for Meta told AFP that the company is continuing to increase investment in renewable energy and that moving away from RE100 does not change its goal to match its electricity use with 100 percent clean energy.
It has met this target on an annual basis since 2020, according to its website, by partnering with renewable energy providers in long-term power purchase agreements.
But the Climate Group told Recharge News that this was no longer enough.
“After some in-depth discussions between Meta and Climate Group, Meta has withdrawn from the RE100 initiative, as it is no longer able to meet the technical criteria due to investments made in new gas power,” a Climate Group spokesperson told the website.
Natural gas has long been billed as a “bridge fuel” between dirtier fossil fuels and renewables like wind and solar. While its emissions are lower, drilling and extracting it releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas and the main component of natural gas.
Flaring natural gas also causes significant air pollution in the form of oxides of nitrogen, sulfur, mercury, and particulate matter, while hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” can contaminate groundwater supplies.
Meta is not alone in his pivot. Microsoft signed a deal with Chevron last month to power a data center with natural gas in West Texas, while Google has also been linked to similar partnerships in press reports.
