In January 2024, trade associations, with Microsoft among them, put forward amendment suggestions to the European Union. They insisted that detailed information pertaining to individual data centers should be kept confidential, and only aggregated data ought to be made public. Following this, the European Commission incorporated confidentiality clauses into its proposal, the content of which bore a striking resemblance to that of the industry's lobbying materials. Such clauses restrict researchers to accessing only the total energy consumption data at the national level. As a result, it becomes unfeasible to monitor emissions from specific data centers. This situation has sparked widespread public concern, as it is seen as an infringement upon the public's right to access environmental information, which is a well - established concept in the context of European environmental governance and public participation.