Meta Withdraws from RE100 Climate Initiative as AI Data Centers Drive Natural Gas Procurement

Meta has formally left the RE100 initiative, a global coalition under which companies commit to sourcing all their power from renewable energy, marking a significant shift in the tech giant’s clean energy strategy. The move follows a sharp increase in natural gas procurement by Meta to meet the surging energy demands from its expanding portfolio of AI data centers.

According to reporting from Recharge, Meta’s decision was driven by its inability to continue meeting RE100’s technical criteria after investing heavily in new gas-fired power capacity. “After several in-depth conversations between Meta and Climate Group, Meta has withdrawn from the RE100 initiative, as it is no longer able to meet the technical criteria due to investments made in new gas power,” a spokesperson from Climate Group, which runs the scheme, told Recharge. Meta originally joined RE100 in 2016 and had claimed since 2021 that its global operations were fully covered by renewable energy.

The departure is closely tied to Meta’s massive Hyperion data center project under development in Louisiana. The project, which could scale up to 5GW in total capacity, will rely heavily on natural gas for baseload power. As part of the development, Meta signed an agreement with utility Entergy to fund the construction of seven new natural gas-fueled generating plants specifically to support the campus. This shift away from a 100% renewable energy model reflects a broader industry trend among major data center operators.

RE100 is led by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP and includes prominent participants such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Adobe, Salesforce, SAP, HP, Dell Technologies, Intel, and Equinix. Meta’s exit is part of a larger movement by hyperscalers toward reliable baseload power from thermal sources, as the explosive growth in AI workloads drives up electricity consumption. For instance, Google reported a 37% increase in its electricity consumption in 2025. The resulting reliance on fossil fuels has directly contributed to rising carbon emissions: Amazon posted a 16% increase in emissions in 2025, while Microsoft reported a 25% rise over the same period.

Notably, Microsoft also revealed last month that it would power a planned 2GW data center in Pecos, Texas, via a 2.67GW natural gas plant—a similar strategy to Meta’s approach. These developments underscore a critical tension: while hyperscalers publicly commit to long-term climate goals, the immediate power demands of AI infrastructure are pushing many to temporarily turn to natural gas, potentially delaying progress on decarbonization targets.