To listen the CEOs at tech giants inform it, climate transformation poses a dire uncertainty to humanity.

Fifteen months ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a post on X that climate transformation is “one of the globe’s most urgent priorities.” Weeks later, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent business Alphabet, described the issue as “humanity’s next large moonshot” in comments at a business conference.

Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos, who founded a $10 billion organization devoted to addressing climate transformation, wrote in an Instagram post nearly five years ago that it is “the biggest threat to our earth.”

Speaking to thousands at a Harvard University commencement in 2017, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg urged graduates to assist fight climate transformation before “we ruin the earth.”

Since the re-election of former President Donald Trump, however, and despite his repeated denials that climate transformation is real and his vows to roll back the country’s commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions, these large-tech leaders and their companies have publicly engaged with the president-elect more amicably than they did during his first administration – including making $1 million donations to his inauguration from each of the companies or their executives.

This apparent warming of relations could make it challenging for the large tech firms, which make up four of the globe’s seven largest companies by economy capitalization, to maintain their high-profile community appearance of corporate advocacy in the fight against climate transformation, according to experts who spoke with ABC information.

Meta declined an ABC information request for comment. Alphabet and Apple did not respond to repeated ABC information requests for comment.

In response to ABC information’ request for comment, the Trump-Vance shift throng touted what they said was Trump’s record on environmental issues.

“In his first term, President Trump advanced conservation and environmental stewardship while promoting financial expansion for families across the country. America’s vigor agenda under President Trump produced affordable, reliable vigor for consumers along with stable, high-paying jobs for tiny businesses – all while dropping U.S. carbon emissions to their lowest level in 25 years,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance shift throng, told ABC information in a statement.

“In his second term, President Trump will once again deliver tidy air and water for American families while Making America Wealthy Again,” Leavitt added.

A pattern of falling U.S. carbon emissions began under President Barack Obama but it continued under Trump, according to Global Carbon monetary schedule findings compiled by Our globe in Data.

large tech and Trump: Then versus now

To be sure, there is no evidence that the companies’ amiable posture toward Trump since the 2024 election has altered their respective plans to reduce emissions of carbon, the primary greenhouse gas driving climate transformation.

Apple, Alphabet and Meta have pledged net-zero carbon emissions by 2030, while Amazon says it will attain the same objective by 2040.

Yet the cordial relations of late between Trump and the tech giants mark a shift from recent years.

Just weeks after he was elected to his first term, Trump met at Trump Tower in recent York with some of the biggest names in tech, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Apple’s Tim Cook, former Alphabet CEO Larry Page and its then-Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, and former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg.

“We’ll be there for you,” Trump told the Silicon Valley royalty, in part, calling them an “amazing throng of people.”

The honeymoon was short-lived for some. During Trump’s first term, he sharply criticized Amazon and The Washington Post, which Bezos owns. Speaking to the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. in 2018, Bezos described Trump’s attacks on the media as “risky.”

Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram banned Trump in January 2021, soon after the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6. Zuckerberg called the risks of allowing Trump on the platform “simply too great,” though last year, Meta reinstated Trump’s accounts.

More recently, that community stance has significantly changed. Last month, Amazon made a $1 million donation to Trump’s inauguration – more than 17 times the $58,000 Amazon donated to Trump’s 2017 inauguration – days after Bezos told The recent York Times that he is “very optimistic” about a second Trump term.

Meta also donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration last month, after not donating to Trump’s 2017 inauguration.

Alphabet also made a $1 million donation, as did Apple CEO Tim Cook, divide from Apple. Apple did not provide to Trump’s 2017 inauguration, while Alphabet donated $285,000 to that year’s occurrence.

Pichai and Cook visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence on consecutive days last month, the Associated Press reported. In posts on X, Pichai and Cook each applauded Trump’s win and vowed to work with the incoming administration.

Meta’s Zuckerberg also met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago Jan. 10, multiple sources told ABC information. The conference took place just days after Zuckerberg announced that Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram were doing away with truth checkers in favor of “throng notes” – essentially, allowing the platforms’ contributors to police content – saying in part that truth-checkers who were put in place in the wake of Trump’s 2016 election have proven to be “too politically biased.”

“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing talk,” Zuckerberg said.

Some industry observers told ABC information that the ostensible softening toward Trump by large-tech corporations reflects a recent business landscape that is both heavily influenced by the president-elect and increasingly defined by the advancement of vigor-intensive artificial intelligence products.

“You’re seeing a much different sense this period around with Trump than obviously when he came into office in 2016,” Dan Ives, a managing director of ownership research at the resource firm Wedbush, which focuses on the tech industry, told ABC information,

“The tech companies can still keep their green-amiable targets, but they also have to play enjoyable in the sandbox with Trump,” Ives added.

While those companies do their best to “play enjoyable” with Trump while continuing to pursue their climate transformation pledges, the analysts said they may continue their climate advocacy more quietly than in prior years.

“I comprehend why companies would not be as vocal under Trump,” Lisa Benjamin, a law professor at the Lewis & Clark Law School who studies corporate responsibility and climate transformation, told ABC information. “They can package it whatever way is palatable, but corporate action is what’s significant here.”

Increasing climate transformation concerns

Warming relations between large tech and Trump have coincided with renewed alarm from scientists and international agencies about the threat posed by climate transformation.

A United Nations update published in October found that greenhouse gas emissions reached an all-period high last year. Urgent action must be taken to avoid “catastrophic” temperature increases and prevent the worst effects of climate transformation, the update said.

For his part, Trump has previously dismissed climate transformation as a “hoax.” One day after the 2020 presidential election, he withdrew U.S. participation in the Paris Climate Accords, a global treaty that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions driving climate transformation. Trump also vowed to boost U.S. production of fossil fuels, a major source of greenhouse gasses.

While Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Meta have community-facing climate commitments, they differ in substance and execution, said Benjamin, of Lewis & Clark Law School.

Some pledges lock companies into near-term commitments that allow for some accountability, while other pledges are less-specific and include significant wiggle room, Benjamin added.

For instance, Apple has vowed to address not only its direct carbon emissions but also those caused by the vigor it purchases, and by the downstream firms within its supply chain. Apple’s pledge qualifies for a list of credible commitments maintained by the United Nations-backed Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a nonprofit that evaluates corporate climate pledges.

By contrast, Amazon’s commitment relies in part on carbon offsets – investments in outside projects that ideally reduce greenhouse gas emissions in amounts equal to what the purchaser produces. Amazon was removed from SBTi’s list in 2023 after the organization said it failed to set a credible carbon emissions target.

In response to ABC information’ request for comment, Amazon pointed to a section of its 2023 sustainability update showing that the business reduced its overall emissions by 3% compared to a year earlier.

Amazon also highlighted a portion of the update that mentions independent review of some of the findings was conducted by bookkeeping firm EY and consulting business Apex.

Alphabet’s pledge qualifies for a spot on SBTi’s list, while Meta’s commitment does not.

“Nuance is everything. You can’t just declare you’ve got a net-zero commitment and we won’t hold you to it,” Benjamin said. “The biggest companies are huge in terms of the number of emissions they capture, and some really can be leaders in the fights against climate transformation.”

As concerns about climate transformation boost, so too does concern among advocates that large tech may soften its commitment to address it under a second Trump administration.

“It matters what they declare, but it matters more what they do,” Benjamin added. “The nightmare scenario is that they’re not as vocal, and they don’t receive sufficiently ambitious actions. That’s what we’re all worried about.”

Balancing climate advocacy with business realities

Industry observers who spoke with ABC information said large-tech firms now must grapple with how to maintain community-facing climate leadership while also preserving well relations with the Trump administration. The latter is essential in order to maintain their bottom lines, leaving them little selection but to embrace that reality.

“The companies either leave to Mar-a-Lago and walk down the red carpet, or they’ll be fighting a battle uphill,” Ives said.

That purported economic reality is exemplified by the competitive fight over the lucrative economy for AI products, Ives said. Trump has indicated that he will do away with a Biden administration executive order that placed a regulatory framework on AI – a commitment that, if kept, is inarguably favorable for large tech.

Given that AI relies on vigor-intensive data centers, however, its further advancement could make it more challenging for those same firms to promote a rapid shift toward green vigor.

“large tech knows they require more vigor to fuel the data centers,” Ives said. “To some extent, they’re going to have to talk out of both sides of their mouths.”

Mindy Lubber, chief executive of the environmental advocacy throng Ceres, which examines corporate conduct, acknowledged the recent business landscape for tech firms and the hardship that Trump poses for the fight to address climate transformation. But in the complete, she anticipates that the tech giants will fulfill their climate pledges.

“I ponder they’ll remain the course,” Lubber said, pointing to potential backlash if the companies reverse or delay their commitments, as well as the large monetary resource firms have already made toward the shift to greener vigor.

“We live in the real globe,” Lubber added. “I don’t ponder it’s black and white.”