How Big Tech wrote secrecy into EU law to hide data centres' environmental toll

7 hours ago

Big Tech companies Microsoft and DigitalEurope (representing Amazon, Google, Meta) successfully lobbied for a secrecy clause in EU law, classifying individual data centers' environmental impact data as confidential.
The confidentiality provision, added to 2024 legislation, blocks public access to key metrics like energy efficiency and water consumption, potentially violating EU transparency rules and the Aarhus Convention on environmental information.
Only aggregated, national-level data is made public, limiting transparency for affected communities, academics, and journalists despite the EU's plan to triple data center capacity with €176 billion in investments over five years.
Legal experts and NGOs criticize the clause as overly broad and corporate-friendly, arguing confidentiality should be determined case-by-case rather than as a blanket rule, with concerns it undermines public interest.
The industry also pushed for faster environmental impact assessments and streamlined permitting for data centers, raising fears of reduced community consultation and potential legitimization of problematic projects.

Hasty Briefsbeta