It’s not easy to unravel the claims made by tech giants today regarding their carbon footprints. The same appears to be the case for tech giant Meta.
While the company’s sustainability report is out to answer any questions on people’s minds about greenhouse gas emissions, it’s not easy to decipher. Many are confused about whether or not the organization’s claims about a drop in emissions are true or not.
The discrepancies are arising because you need to take a simple fact into consideration. Is Meta talking about total emissions or is it making the claims after net emissions? If it’s being done locally, you have to determine the key points where the company operates as well.
As seen in the chart above, the light gray-toned bars display gas emissions and since 2019, the figures have kept going upwards. This means the levels of carbon dioxide polluting the environment are at an all-time high.
The dark bars then show market-based results where the emissions have kept falling since last year. Hence, when you look at this footprint, they are half as small. Now the question is what to believe and why.
While Meta might be highlighting the smaller figure or drop in emissions at the report’s top, we need to take both of them into consideration when making a final decision. This is especially true, considering how effective market-based efforts can be in getting rid of pollution and therefore impacting climate change.
The emissions on paper are close to half but it’s not easy to claim how much it’s reduced as a whole. This is compounded with claims from Meta that it balances its high energy use with its renewable purchases for energy.
The company has highlighted the importance of several steps it’s taking to offer better support to both wind and solar initiatives near data centers. One study showed how its support for several renewable energy sources will give rise to 9800MW to local grids next year. It similarly hopes to curate geothermal energy for data centers so it’s really pushing through on this front.
Whatever the case may be, we feel a lot of progress needs to be made. Meta sourced close to 8.5% of the purchases for renewable energy as per the firm’s latest tech assessment.
As a whole, if we were to conclude, the company’s carbon footprint is much bigger than what it was four years back. Keeping in mind its goal for net zero emissions by 2030, lots of work must be done.
Remember, there are a lot of different operations involved on this front. From supply chain to usage of consumer products, the list is long. As we can see now, it’s drifting further and further from its end goal so it’s about time to reconsider. What do you think?
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