The past few weeks have been a doozey! Three tech giants unleashed their sustainability reports in July 2026: Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. The odd part is that Amazon’s report says 2025 while Microsoft and Google says 2026? Just know that the discrepancy comes down to how each company aligns its reporting cycle with the calendar year versus its own fiscal year. 😅

Just remember that all of their data including primary greenhouse gas, electricity, and water datasets cover the calendar year of 2025. The common conclusion: carbon emissions and water use continues to increase at all three companies because of the data center and generative AI buildout. Big surprise, am I right? 😆

Here’s an irony, all the Chief Sustainability Officers (CSO) at these companies agree that transparency is super-duper important. But the reporting varies widely once you dig into what they disclose. Amy Harder did a nice summary for Axios which goes into far more detail than I will write for this newsletter issue lol.

But for funsies, “Google and Meta disclose the strongest energy-efficiency metrics, according to the analysis. Amazon reports the strongest water-efficiency figure, though it ranks last overall because it provides the fewest metrics, including how much electricity it consumes”.

Now… What about the rest of the tech companies? Like for example Meta?

Chau 👋,

Nate

Gov. Spanberger on Affordability, Data Centers, NextEra-Dominion and More (AI & Energy): POLITICO Energy's Josh Siegel interviews Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger on the state's first-of-its-kind data center energy tax, her affordability agenda, and Democratic energy and climate messaging ahead of the midterms.

Jim Hart, CEO BCS Consultancy: Data Center Truths 2026 (AI & Data Centers/Hardware): On the Inside Data Centre Podcast, Andy Davis and BCS co-founder Jim Hart dig into the Data Center Truths 2026 report, from a projected 600,000 FTE workforce shortfall to power timelines stretching 8-12 years in parts of Europe.

Sustainable Finance is Not Fit for the Age of AI (AI & Policy/ESG): The signature closing debate of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Summit takes on whether sustainable finance can keep pace with the age of AI, following past motions on net zero pledges, 1.5 degrees, and the ESG backlash.

Lights, Camera, Carbon: Architectural Scaling Laws for Video Generation Energy Consumption (AI & Data Centers/Hardware/Model): A bidirectional framework for estimating the energy consumption of text-to-video and text-to-video-audio models from architectural first principles and observable parameters like resolution and duration, with no access to weights or model size required. Authors: Jegham et al. Journal: arXiv.

Guidance for Calculating Water Use Embedded in Purchased Electricity (AI & Water Resources): A working paper proposing the first comprehensive approach to calculate water withdrawals and consumption tied to purchased electricity, with country-level and U.S. subnational grid-average water use factors. Authors: Reig et al. Journal: World Resources Institute (WRI).

AI-Driven Dynamic Retail Electricity Tariffs: A Policy and Regulatory Perspective (AI & Energy): Argues that AI-driven dynamic electricity tariffs could improve implicit demand response, but their benefits, limits, and governance implications remain fundamentally conditional. Authors: Stampatori and Poudineh. Journal: The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

The Data Center Water Problem is Soluble (AI & Water Resources): Argues that the water demands of data centers are a measurable and manageable problem rather than an intractable one. Authoring Body: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF).

Leveraging AI to Enhance Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems (MHEWS) (AI & Geospatial Analysis): Examines how AI can strengthen multi-hazard early warning systems in support of the Early Warnings for All initiative. Authoring Body: UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).

2026 Environmental Sustainability Report (AI & Sustainability): Microsoft's annual report on its progress against its carbon, water, waste, and ecosystem commitments. Authoring Body: Microsoft.

The Infrastructure Powering AI | Benjamin Lee (AI & Multiple Applications): Brandon Krakowsky talks with UPenn professor Benjamin Lee about the infrastructure behind modern AI, from GPU clusters and hyperscale data centers to energy consumption, water usage, and sustainable AI.

The Cost of Convenience? Big Tech's Power, Data and Public Accountability (AI & Multiple Applications): A panel on Big Tech's growing power, its use of data, and questions of public accountability.

Fireside Chat 8B: Water, Heat and Resilience – Financing Physical Climate Risk (AI & Climate Science & Research): A conversation on integrating intensifying physical climate risks across water, heat, and infrastructure into investment strategies and directing capital toward resilience and adaptation.

florrent (AI & Energy): A minority-led company innovating on the next generation of high energy density supercapacitors. Location: North America.

HammerheadAI, Inc. (AI & Data Centers/Hardware): Uses reinforcement learning agents to orchestrate compute, cooling, and power, helping operators generate up to 30% more AI tokens within existing power limits. Location: North America.

Hanwha Data Centers (AI & Data Centers/Hardware): A Hanwha Energy USA subsidiary developing and operating advanced energy campuses purpose-built to support large-scale data centers. Location: North America.

Data Center Playbook (AI & Policy): A guide from Americans for Responsible Innovation giving communities real tools to secure benefits from data center buildouts, hold down utility costs, and bring transparency to the process. Price: FREE.

The Data Center Power Playbook (AI & Energy): A living, open resource for the AI infrastructure industry to de-risk and streamline power. Price: FREE.

HASTE - High-speed Assessment and Satellite Tracking for Emergencies (AI & Disaster Response): An AI-powered disaster assessment framework using satellite imagery and remote sensing to give humanitarian response teams rapid assessment capabilities. Price: FREE.

If you have resources that you wish to submit to the AI & Environment Resource Hub, fill out the Google Form! Thank you for suggesting resources to add to the Resource Hub. 🙃

Over the weekend, we had the tech billionaires/trillionaires fitting over orbital data centers on X:

Thanks for reading the 49th issue of The Climate Code! It means a lot to me and we have more coming in the future, so definitely stick around! 💚

Nate

PS 😁

New here? I would recommend checking out Data Center Battlegrounds (our YouTube channel focusing on the environmental impacts of data centers) and also the AI & Environment Resource Hub itself.

PPS 😆

If you’re feeling EXTRA GUTSY, connect with me here on LinkedIn! Say hey 👋.