Tech firms and the Paris Agreement
United States recently withdrew from the 2015 Paris Agreement.Several high-tech industry companies have opposed the move and have pledged to continue their environmentally conscious efforts.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai promised his support in his tweeted response, “Disappointed with today’s decision. Google will keep working hard for a cleaner, more prosperous future for all.”
Elon Musk, who had been amember of Mr.Trump’s business panel, announced he would leave the post.”Am departing presidential councils,” Musktweeted.”Climate change is real.Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.”
“Withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement is bad for the environment, bad for the economy, and it puts our children’s future at risk,” wrote Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg “For our part, we’ve committed that every new data center we build will be powered by 100% renewable energy,” he added.
Google announced in its blog that it will make 1,000 Cloud TPU systems available to artificial intelligence researchers willing to openly share details of their work.
“IBM supported – and still supports – US participation in the Paris Agreement,” IBM said in a statement.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff tweeted a statement of his company’s resolve to promote sustainability, along with this message, ”Deeply disappointed by President’s decision to withdraw from ParisAgreement. We will double our efforts to fight climate change.
“Microsoft believes that climate change is an urgent issue that demands global action,” President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith posted on LinkedIn. “We’ve sent letters to and held meetings on this topic with senior officials in the State Department and the White House.”
All renewable energy resources combined account for nearly 10% of the US’s demand – but certain resources within that, including solar, have been growing rapidly according to the US Energy Information Administration. It is thus not surprising that Tech firms are investing heavily in making their operations greener.
Solar energy actually employs more US workers than Apple, Google and Facebook together, and this explains the interest of tech firms in renewable revolution. Tesla recently announced a new product solar panels for your roof that look similar to ordinary tiles.
Google, for example, on track to hit its own goal of offsetting 100% of its data centers’ energy use against renewable power. And Apple has said that 96% of its energy comes from renewable sources and the company is now pushing its suppliers to follow its example
We can thus still be optimistic and hope for a ‘greener’ future.