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illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on The Lever or enjoy below:
🗞️ Driving the news: At the 2025 Hill & Valley Forum in Washington, Google President Ruth Porat praised U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s rejection of what he called the “climate extremist agenda,” endorsing his call for more coal, gas, and nuclear to power AI-driven data centers
• Porat described Burgum’s remarks as “fantastic,” signaling a major shift away from Google’s past climate leadership and toward alignment with the Trump administration’s pro-fossil fuel policies
🔭 The context: Google (see sustainability performance) pledged in 2020 to run all its operations on carbon-free energy by 2030, positioning itself as an industry leader in corporate climate action
• Yet surging AI demand has driven its emissions up nearly 50% since 2019
• The company’s new white paper on energy security omitted wind and solar, instead prioritizing natural gas with carbon capture, nuclear, and geothermal
• The pivot mirrors the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan, which explicitly rejects climate-focused policies and frames fossil fuels as critical to sustaining U.S. technological dominance
🌍 Why it matters for the planet: The tech industry’s energy demand is accelerating, with AI data centers driving sharp increases in electricity use
• Google’s retreat from renewables undermines momentum for global decarbonization and risks locking AI infrastructure into decades of fossil fuel reliance
• This raises concerns of greenwashing, credibility loss, and missed opportunities to expand affordable renewable power — at a moment when 93% of global new power additions in 2024 came from renewables
⏭️ What's next: Climate groups are expected to intensify pressure on Google and other tech companies to maintain their clean energy commitments
• With regulators, investors, and civil society scrutinizing emissions, Google faces a reputational test: either double down on fossil-aligned energy security or pivot back toward renewable investments despite higher short-term costs
• The company’s trajectory could shape both AI growth and U.S. climate credibility ahead of 2030 targets
💬 One quote: “This U.S. AI Action Plan doesn’t just open the door for Big Tech and Big Oil to team up, it unhinges and removes any and all doors,” — KD Chavez, executive director of the Climate Justice Alliance
📈 One stat: Google’s greenhouse gas emissions rose 48% between 2019 and 2024, driven largely by energy-intensive AI data centers
See on illuminem's Data Hub™ the sustainability performance of Google, and its peers Microsoft, and Amazon
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