The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has dropped a proposal that would have made it harder for technology companies, including Meta and Amazon, to exclude fossil fuel-powered data centres from their clean energy claims.

Citing four people familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reported that the corporate climate watchdog will allow companies to claim their gas-fuelled data centres are fully covered by clean energy investments after heavy lobbying from the tech industry.

Affected companies argued that a change in policy could backfire by discouraging clean energy investments, despite research showing it could slash emissions, the paper reported.

Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft claim they “match” all of their fossil fuel energy use with clean energy investments, but their use of greenhouse gas-emitting fuels is rising due to the vast energy demands of data centres.

Currently, these companies buy renewable energy certificates that represent the generation of clean energy, even if it is produced at a different point in time or in a different part of the world. The SBTi proposal, released in November, would have forced large energy users to buy certificates that represent energy produced at roughly the same time the fossil fuel-powered energy was consumed.

The FT reported that a technical decision-making body at SBTi approved a standard last week, due to be published in the coming weeks, that would make this optional.

Other major regulators, including the European Union and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, are also seeking to crack down on emissions reporting and introduce hourly and location-matching energy rules.

In response, the FT reported, a lobbying effort representing companies including Amazon, Apple, General Motors, Salesforce, and Schneider Electric was launched last month. The group, called “May Not Shall,” argued for keeping these regulations optional.

SBTi has previously told the FT that it “has strict governance and safeguards in place to ensure no disproportionate influence from any one individual, stakeholder or group of stakeholders.”

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