The decision is a setback amid the boom of highly energy-intensive data centers
Meta withdraws from clean energy initiative
Source: Washington - AFP
Date: July 26, 2026
American tech giant Meta confirmed its withdrawal from a commitment it had made alongside a number of major multinational corporations to use only renewable electricity, marking a setback amid the boom of highly energy-intensive data centers.
The RE100 initiative, part of the non-governmental organization Climate Group, aims to encourage climate action among companies. Its 444 members include Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
The initiative's website no longer lists Meta among its participants.
A spokesperson for the group, which owns social networks Facebook and Instagram, confirmed Meta's withdrawal from the initiative.
Speaking to AFP, he stressed Meta's efforts to invest in renewable energy sources and that it has not abandoned its goal of relying on clean energy to cover its entire electricity consumption.
The specialized renewable energy news site Recharge News was the first to report this decision.
Meta joined the RE100 initiative in 2016, according to archives available on the Wayback Machine.
Meta's withdrawal comes amid a frantic race among major tech companies to build data centers aimed at training and operating artificial intelligence systems, which are highly energy-intensive.
The sector is spending vast sums to build these giant warehouses from scratch, equip them with expensive microchips, and secure their connection to power grids. Meta has signed agreements with energy suppliers to put new gas-fired plants into service, notably to power its Hypersion data center in Louisiana in the southern United States.
The group claims on its website that since 2020 it has covered 100% of its electricity consumption through "clean and renewable energy" thanks to its investments in wind and solar power. However, the Climate Group says that is no longer sufficient.
Recharge News quoted a representative from the organization as saying: "After a number of in-depth discussions between Meta and the Climate Group, Meta withdrew from the RE100 initiative because it could no longer meet the technical standards due to investments in new gas plants." Meta is not the only tech group to take this path; Microsoft last month signed an agreement with Chevron to power a data center in Texas with natural gas, and Alphabet (Google) has signed similar agreements.
