Last week’s request for public comment from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP) doesn’t look like a major win for a tech giant to the naked eye. In fact, it seems almost clerical. But for Google and Microsoft, the announcement constitutes a considerable win in their years-long battle against their competitors over how to account for the carbon emissions of data centers and, by extension, AI.
The announcement shows that the GHGP is one step closer to implementing a mandatory hourly accounting method for electricity emissions—a carbon-accounting system Google and Microsoft have advocated for since 2020 and 2021, respectively.
“We support the proposed Scope 2 updates,