Microsoft and other US tech companies successfully lobbied the EU to hide the environmental toll of their datacentres, an investigation has found, with demands to block a database of green metrics from public view written almost word for word into EU rules.
一项调查发现，Microsoft 及其他美国科技公司成功游说欧盟隐瞒其数据中心的环境成本，要求几乎逐字抄入欧盟规则，阻止公众公开绿色指标数据库。

The secrecy provision, which the European Commission added to its proposal almost verbatim after industry lobbying in 2024, hinders scrutiny of the pollution that individual datacentres emit. It leaves researchers with just national-level summaries of their energy footprints.
欧盟委员会在 2024 年业界游说后几乎逐字加入了该提案中的保密条款，阻碍了对单个数据中心排放污染的审查。这让研究人员只能获得国家层面的能源足迹总结。

The rise of AI chatbots has spurred a boom in the construction of chip-filled warehouses with a hunger for power that is being met, in part, by burning fossil gas. Legal scholars warn the blanket confidentiality clause may fall foul of EU transparency rules and the Aarhus convention on public access to environmental information.
人工智能聊天机器人的兴起推动了芯片仓库建设的热潮，对电力的渴望部分通过燃烧化石气来满足。法律学者警告称，全面保密条款可能触犯欧盟透明度规则和《奥胡斯公约》关于公众获取环境信息的规定。

“In two decades, I cannot recall a comparable case,” said Prof Jerzy Jendrośka, who spent 19 years on the body overseeing the convention and teaches environmental law at the University of Opole in Poland. “This clearly seems not to be in line with the convention.”
“二十年来，我想不起有类似的案例，”曾在该机构任职19年、在波兰奥波莱大学教授环境法的耶日·延德罗斯卡教授说。“这显然与公约不符。”

Documents obtained by Investigate Europe, an independent journalism cooperative that led the research in collaboration with the Guardian and other media partners, show the rules have already been used to shield datacentres from scrutiny.
独立新闻合作组织 Investigate Europe 获得的文件显示，这些规则已被用来保护数据中心免受审查。

In an email citing the secrecy clause last year, a senior commission official reminded national authorities of their obligation to “keep confidential all information and key performance indicators for individual datacentres”.
去年，一位高级委员会官员在一封引用保密条款的邮件中提醒国家当局，他们有义务“对各个数据中心的所有信息和关键绩效指标保密”。

“It is really important to reiterate this point as the commission has already received various requests for access to documents by the media or the public in relation to the data,” the official said. “All these requests have been so far refused.”
“重申这一点非常重要，因为委员会已经收到媒体或公众关于数据的多次请求，要求查阅相关文件，”该官员说。“到目前为止，所有这些请求均被拒绝。”

The US and China have led the global AI boom but even in Europe datacentres are being built at breakneck speed. The EU aims to triple its datacentre capacity in the next five to seven years as it seeks to position itself as a global leader in artificial intelligence.
美国和中国引领了全球人工智能热潮，但即使在欧洲 ，数据中心建设速度也非常惊人。欧盟计划在未来五到七年内将数据中心容量增加三倍，力图将自己定位为全球人工智能领导者。

In a move to increase transparency, the commission updated its energy efficiency directive in 2023 to oblige datacentre operators to report data on key performance indicators. In further guidance, it proposed publishing “aggregated” environmental metrics.
为了提高透明度，委员会于2023年更新了能源效率指令，要求数据中心运营商报告关键绩效指标的数据。在进一步指导中，委员会建议发布“汇总”环境指标。

But during public consultations in January 2024, tech companies pushed to classify all individual information on datacentres as confidential, citing commercial interests. The demand means the data cannot even be accessed through freedom of information requests.
但在2024年1月的公众咨询期间，科技公司推动将数据中心上的所有个人信息归类为机密，理由是商业利益。这一要求意味着通过信息自由请求甚至无法访问这些数据。

The final text of the article, which differs by just a couple of words from industry demands, states “the commission and member states concerned shall keep confidential all information and key performance indicators for individual datacentres that are communicated to the database … Such information shall be considered confidential information affecting the commercial interests of operators and owners of datacentres.”
该条款的最终文本与行业要求仅有几句不同，指出“委员会及相关成员国应对所有传达给数据库的单个数据中心的信息和关键绩效指标保密……这些信息应被视为影响数据中心运营商和所有者商业利益的机密信息。”

Industry submissions during the public consultation show the groups who lobbied for the change are Microsoft; DigitalEurope, an industry organisation whose members include Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta; and Video Games Europe, whose members include Microsoft and Netflix.
在公众咨询期间的行业提交的意见显示，推动变更的团体包括 Microsoft;DigitalEurope，一个成员包括 Microsoft、Google、亚马逊和 Meta 的行业组织;以及 Video Games Europe，其成员包括 Microsoft 和 Netflix。

Ben Youriev, a researcher at InfluenceMap, a not-for-profit organisation that tracks corporate lobbying, said it was an example of how the tech sector was reckoning with a shift towards using more energy.
InfluenceMap（一个追踪企业游说的非营利组织）的研究员本·尤里耶夫表示，这反映了科技行业正面临向更多能源使用转变的趋势。

He said: “Where the industry was previously outspoken in its support for clean energy and emissions reductions, many firms have since fallen silent. Instead, they appear to be prioritising the rapid build-out of datacentre infrastructure globally over supporting clean energy and rapid emissions reductions.”
他说：“行业此前曾公开支持清洁能源和减排，但许多公司此后已沉默。相反，他们似乎优先考虑全球数据中心基础设施的快速建设，而非支持清洁能源和快速减排。”

DigitalEurope did not respond to a request for comment. The commission and Video Games Europe declined to comment.
数字欧洲未回应置评请求。委员会及电子游戏欧洲均拒绝置评。

Microsoft said it supports greater transparency around datacenters as sustainability disclosures can help drive better outcomes and build public trust. A spokesperson said: “We are taking further steps to increase openness, while protecting confidential business information.”
Microsoft 表示，支持数据中心的更大透明度，因为可持续性披露有助于推动更好的成果并建立公众信任。一位发言人表示：“我们正在采取进一步措施，提高透明度，同时保护机密商业信息。”

The EU executive considers the regulation a first step to creating a common EU rating scheme for datacentres. In a second phase, for which public consultation on the legislation ends this month, it plans to publish sustainability scores from the database to “make it easier to compare different datacentres in a same region and promote new designs or appropriate efficiency in datacentres”. Under the current proposals the majority of what operators report would remain confidential.
欧盟执行委员会认为该法规是建立欧盟数据中心共同评级体系的第一步。在第二阶段，该立法的公众咨询将于本月结束，计划发布数据库中的可持续发展评分，以“使同一地区不同数据中心更容易比较，并推动新设计或数据中心的适当效率”。根据当前提案，大多数运营商报告的内容将保持保密。

The commission’s internal position, according to sources close to the matter, is that making each datacentre’s information public might lead operators to stop reporting their sustainability metrics. However, EU data shows that only 36% of eligible datacentres have complied with the existing reporting requirements.
据接近此事的消息人士透露，委员会内部立场是，公开每个数据中心的信息可能导致运营商停止报告其可持续性指标。然而，欧盟数据显示，只有36%的合格数据中心遵守了现有报告要求。

The industry has “a real interest in keeping the numbers hidden”, said Alex de Vries-Gao, a researcher at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, who has mostly had to rely on aggregated data when seeking to quantify the environmental footprint of AI.
阿姆斯特丹自由大学的研究员 Alex de Vries-Gao 表示，行业“非常希望将数据隐藏起来”，他在量化人工智能的环境足迹时，主要依赖汇总数据。

“Public information is extremely limited. You typically have to bend over backward to come up with any numbers,” he said.
“公开信息极其有限。通常你得费尽心思才能得出任何数字，”他说。

The EU is obliged under the Aarhus convention to ensure that environmental information is systematically made available by the authorities to the public.
根据《奥胡斯公约》，欧盟有义务确保当局系统地向公众提供环境信息。

Luc Lavrysen, the former president of the Belgian constitutional court and emeritus professor of environmental law at Ghent University, said the confidentiality clause “is clearly in violation” of EU transparency rules and the Aarhus convention.
比利时宪法法院前院长、根特大学环境法名誉教授卢克·拉弗里森表示，保密条款“明显违反了”欧盟透明度规则和奥胡斯公约。

Kristina Irion, an associate professor in information law at the University of Amsterdam, reached the same conclusion. She said the “sweeping presumption of confidentiality” incorrectly benefits corporate interests over public access to at least some of the data.
阿姆斯特丹大学信息法副教授克里斯蒂娜·艾里昂也得出了同样的结论。她表示，“广泛的保密推定”错误地使企业利益比至少部分数据的公众访问更有利。

“What deserves protection as confidential information affecting the commercial interests of datacentre companies should be determined on a case-by-case basis,” she said.
她说：“哪些内容应作为影响数据中心公司的商业利益的机密信息应逐案确定。”