
Amazon: Carbon emissions from our Australian bit barns aren't for public viewing - benologist
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/07/04/amazon_carbon_emissions_from_australian_bit_barns_are_a_trade_secret/
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avip
The fact a corp can _not disclose_ its carbon footprint in 2019 demonstrates
how far behind we are in legislation. It’s just a huge sad tragedy of the
commons.

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lugg
How can it? Using what standard? America's? Australia's? Where do you even get
the impression they should have to and that it's so out of this world that
they don't "have to"?

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threezero
Amazon is supposed to abide by the laws of any country they operate in. The
law in Australia says that they need to disclose energy use and that those
numbers are made public. If Amazon doesn’t want to follow Australian laws,
perhaps they shouldn’t be putting bit barns in Australia.

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archgoon
It appears that they are acting within the law for this request.

"Section 25 of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (NGER
Act) permits corporations to apply to have information withheld from
publication. Pending finalisation of their application to withhold their
corporate emissions and energy data from publication, Amazon Corporate
Services Pty Ltd's data is withheld from publication"

They will probably be denied the request.

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jedberg
On the one hand, I can see why they make this claim -- their energy efficiency
_is_ a competitive advantage, and could tip off the competitors as to how
large their infrastructure in Australia is.

On the other hand, they're a public company that has to release their
financial information publicly, and that too is a competitive advantage. If
everyone has to share the same info, is it really an advantage anymore?

I think they're just trying to avoid getting to a point where energy use is
required to be shared in the same way as financial information.

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lugg
I'm confused, why should type of energy usage be made public, forceably?

Ok if we want to go down this route but I'm not really reading any reasons for
forcing this.

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BlackRing
I disagree with the idea entirely. My energy usage is between myself (my
company) and the utility company. Why anyone else has to have this information
shouldn't even be an ongoing issue. I'm glad my business don't have to deal
with that nonsense.

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dlhavema
So are they "privately" reporting data to the regulator and the regulator
wants to publush it for public review effectively? I'm guessing all the data
gets published or this wouldn't be an issue...

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jammygit
Is GCP carbon neutral? If amazon is hiding emissions data, I wonder if we
should look at other providers.

Which are the greenest clouds in general?

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moksly
I think the slow pace on carbon footprint will end up biting Amazon in the
ass. The public sector of Europe is busy moving our infrastructure into the
“public cloud” and carbon emissions are going to be one of the key deciding
measurements for the political layer. Politicians mainly care about cost, some
about scandal avoidance (safety) and almost none about the “right” technical
solution. It’s always been like that, and that’s fine, but recently climate
and carbon footprint has been beating cost.

