AI tech giants hide dirty energy with outdated carbon accounting rules 

Companies are buying credits — called unbundled renewable energy certificates (RECs) — that can make it seem that power consumed from a coal plant came from a solar farm instead.

A spokesperson for Meta, which relied on unbundled RECs and power from utilities labelled 'green;' for 18% of its renewable energy, said the 'majority' of the company’s 'renewable energy efforts' are focused on projects that 'would not have otherwise been built'.  Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Tech companies’ relentless push into artificial intelligence (AI) is coming at an undisclosed cost to the planet.

Amazon, Microsoft and Meta are concealing their actual carbon footprints, buying credits tied to electricity use that inaccurately erase millions of tons of planet-warming emissions from their carbon accounts, a Bloomberg Green analysis finds.