Meta has left the RE100 initiative, a global coalition of companies that have committed to source all their power from renewable energy.

According to reporting from Recharge, the company left the initiative following its increase in natural gas power procurement to meet the surging energy demands from its AI data center portfolio.

“After several in-depth conversations between Meta and Climate Group, Meta has withdrawn from the RE100 initiative, as it is no longer able to meet the technical criteria due to investments made in new gas power,” a spokesperson from Climate Group,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 back in 2016, and, since 2021, has claimed its global operations have been covered in their entirety. The decision to drop out of the initiative is likely driven by Meta’s Hyperion project in development in Louisiana, which will be largely powered by natural gas.

As part of the up to 5GW project, Meta signed a deal with utility Entergy to fund the construction of seven new natural gas-fueled generating plants to support the campus.

RE100 is a global initiative bringing together companies committed to sourcing 100 percent of their electricity from renewable energy. Led by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP, it encourages businesses to set clear renewable electricity targets and report their progress. Major companies part of RE100 include Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Adobe, Salesforce, SAP, HP, Dell Technologies, Intel, and Equinix.

Meta’s departure from the initiative is part of a broader move by major data center developers towards baseload power solutions, primarily from thermal sources. The majority of the large-scale hyperscalers have reported significant increases in electricity consumption as a result of data center build-out. For example, Google reported a 37 percent uptick in 2025.

This has led to increased carbon emissions, with Amazon reporting a 16 percent increase in 2025 and Microsoft a 25 percent rise during the same time frame. Notably, Microsoft revealed last month that it would power a planned 2GW data center in Pecos, Texas, via a 2.67GW natural gas plant.