Published 20:03 IST, October 12th 2019
Google accused of contributing to groups that deny climate change
Google has been accused of providing “substantial” contribution to several think tanks that have been actively campaigning against climate change actions.
- World News
- 2 min read
Google has been accused of providing “substantial” contributions to several Washington-based think tanks that have been actively campaigning against climate change actions and stricter legislation. According to a British daily, Google contributed to conservative organisations that convinced US President Donald Trump to pull out of the Paris climate deal and asked to roll back environmental protections brought by Obama administration.
Google accused of controversial contributions
Google, in spite of expressing disappointment after Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the climate deal, contributed to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a conservative group against environmental rules. Google has been listed as one of the sponsors of an upcoming annual meeting of the State Policy Network (SPN). SPN is an umbrella organisation that supports conservative and anti-science radical groups.
Sundar Pichai stressed on the need for carbon footprint reduction
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has been writing on climate change by emphasizing on the need for renewable energy. Pichai, in one of his blogs published in September, said that Google made efforts to curb the carbon footprint of their operations calling sustainability as one of the core values of the company. He announced that Google became the biggest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the entire history.
“This purchase is made up of a 1,600-megawatt (MW) package of agreements and includes 18 new energy deals. Together, these deals will increase our worldwide portfolio of wind and solar agreements by more than 40 per cent, to 5,500 MW—equivalent to the capacity of a million solar rooftops.”
Pichai claimed that Google’s carbon-free energy portfolio will produce electricity more than Washington D.C. and countries like Lithuania or Uruguay use each year. “Our latest agreements will also spur the construction of more than $2 billion in new energy infrastructure, including millions of solar panels and hundreds of wind turbines spread across three continents,” he wrote. Google’s positioning on climate change and Paris climate deal have been in sharp contrast with its contributions towards such conservative groups that deny climate change and call it a myth.
(with agency inputs)
Updated 22:06 IST, October 12th 2019