Real-Time Energy and Carbon Data for Cloud
The first standard requiring cloud providers to share real-time energy and carbon data in a common format.
Cloud providers are the world's largest purchasers of renewable energy, yet they only release carbon data to customers monthly, with delays of several months. The Real Time Cloud (RTC) standard changes this by normalising energy and carbon metadata from AWS, Azure, and GCP into a single, comparable dataset — enabling accurate emissions reporting, carbon-aware workload scheduling, and regulatory compliance.
Developed with consensus from GSF member organisations
What is Real Time Cloud?
For each cloud region, RTC captures Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE), Carbon Free Energy percentages, renewable energy breakdowns, carbon intensity metrics (location-based, market-based, marginal, and average), grid zone IDs for real-time API lookups via Electricity Maps and WattTime, and geolocation data. The result: organisations running workloads across multiple providers can finally compare carbon data using a single, consistent methodology.
Why RTC Matters
Cloud computing's environmental impact is growing rapidly, yet the data needed to measure and reduce it has been fragmented, delayed, and incomparable across providers.
Industry Impact
Organisations measuring the carbon footprint of their cloud workloads have faced the same foundational problem: data from cloud providers is late, incomplete, and incomparable across platforms. If you run workloads across AWS, Azure, and GCP, you receive three different reports using three different methodologies on three different timescales. RTC eliminates this fragmentation by establishing the first cross-provider standard for energy and carbon disclosure, creating a single source of truth that the entire industry can build upon.
Business Benefits
Real-time carbon visibility — Move from monthly reports with months of delay to minute-by-minute carbon intensity data for informed workload scheduling
Accurate Scope 3 reporting — Include cloud provider renewable energy purchases in your emissions calculations, eliminating systematically inflated estimates
Cross-provider comparison — Compare carbon performance across AWS, Azure, and GCP using a single, standardised methodology
Regulatory compliance — Meet CSRD, California disclosure requirements, and EU Energy Efficiency Directive reporting obligations
Carbon-aware scheduling — Use real-time grid zone IDs to run workloads when and where energy is cleanest
Environmental Impact
Customers reporting Scope 3 emissions were forced to produce estimates using incomplete public information that excluded the cloud providers' own renewable energy purchases — systematically inflating emissions estimates. Organisations that had invested heavily in clean cloud infrastructure were being penalised by the data gap. RTC solves this by capturing carbon-free energy percentages, renewable energy breakdowns including Guarantees of Origin, Power Purchase Agreements, and on-site generation, giving a true picture of each cloud region's environmental footprint.
The Cloud Region Metadata Table
The 23 standardised columns are grouped into five categories, normalising energy, carbon, and infrastructure data across all major cloud providers into a single comparable format.
Energy Efficiency
Power and water usage effectiveness metrics for every cloud region, plus total ICT energy consumption and water input
Carbon Free Energy
Hourly and annual carbon-free energy percentages, with renewable energy broken down by certificates, Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), and on-site generation
Carbon Intensity
Five carbon intensity metrics — location-based (local grid mix), market-based (contractual instruments), marginal (impact of additional demand), and average — at both provider and grid level
Grid & Location
Electricity Maps and WattTime zone identifiers, CFE region designations, geographic location names, and coordinates
Provider & Time
Calendar year, cloud provider name, and region identifier for cross-provider comparison
Mandatory Metadata Parameters
The specification defines two conformance levels for cloud providers implementing the Cloud Region Metadata Table. Each level specifies the mandatory parameters that must be provided for every cloud region.
Level 1 — Basic Conformance
Cloud providers claiming Level 1 conformance must provide these eight mandatory parameters for each cloud region, covering essential identifiers, geographic data, efficiency metrics, and carbon intensity.
| Parameter | Unit | Update Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| year | numeric | Annual |
| cloud-provider | string | Static |
| cloud-region | string | Static |
| location | string | Static |
| geolocation | decimal degrees | Static |
| power-usage-effectiveness | ratio | Annual |
| grid-carbon-intensity | gCO₂eq/kWh | Annual |
| provider-cfe-annual | proportion | Annual |
Level 2 — Advanced Conformance
Cloud providers claiming Level 2 conformance must provide all Level 1 parameters plus the following additional parameters specified in Table 1 of the specification, enabling advanced carbon-aware computing and regulatory compliance.
| Parameter | Unit | Description |
|---|---|---|
| cfe-region | string | Carbon-free energy grid region name as reported by the provider |
| em-zone-id | string | Electricity Maps zone identifier for real-time lookups |
| wt-region-id | string | WattTime region identifier for real-time lookups |
| provider-cfe-hourly | proportion | Carbon-free energy proportion, hourly weighted through the year |
| water-usage-effectiveness | L/kWh | Water usage effectiveness for the region |
| provider-carbon-intensity-market-annual | gCO₂eq/kWh | Scope 2 market-based carbon intensity including offsets |
| provider-carbon-intensity-average-consumption-hourly | gCO₂eq/kWh | Consumption-based carbon intensity, hourly weighted (24×7) |
| grid-carbon-intensity-average-consumption-annual | gCO₂eq/kWh | Electricity Maps consumption-based annual average |
| grid-carbon-intensity-marginal-consumption-annual | gCO₂eq/kWh | WattTime marginal carbon intensity annual average |
| total-ICT-energy-consumption-annual | kWh | Total energy for all data centres in cloud region (EED) |
| total-water-input | L | Total water for all data centres in cloud region (EED) |
| renewable-energy-consumption | kWh | Total renewable energy (EED) |
| renewable-energy-consumption-goe | kWh | Renewable energy from Guarantees of Origin / RECs (EED) |
| renewable-energy-consumption-ppa | kWh | Renewable energy from power purchase agreements (EED) |
| renewable-energy-consumption-onsite | kWh | Renewable energy from on-site generation (EED) |
The Cloud Carbon Data Gap
Despite being the world's largest purchasers of renewable energy, cloud providers have only released carbon data to customers on a monthly basis, with delays of a few months. This gap leaves users relying on public data that overlooks these clean energy investments, resulting in inflated emissions estimates. RTC closes this gap with standardised, comparable, real-time data.
Transformative Capabilities
RTC brings unprecedented transparency to cloud carbon data through features designed for real-world enterprise use.
Cross-Provider Normalisation
A single table covering AWS, Azure, and GCP with consistent definitions and methodology
Real-Time API Integration
Grid zone IDs for Electricity Maps and WattTime enable live carbon intensity lookups
Renewable Energy Transparency
Breakdowns by Guarantees of Origin, Power Purchase Agreements, and on-site generation
GSF Ecosystem Integration
Feeds directly into Impact Framework and SCI for software carbon calculations
Open Data
All datasets are publicly available on GitHub, with community contributions welcomed
Built for Every Role in Cloud
From Conference Talk to Global Standard
In March 2023, Adrian Cockcroft — former VP of Cloud Architecture Strategy at AWS — proposed the standard at QCon London. Having spent years on both sides of the problem, he understood that cloud providers had the data but lacked a standard format for sharing it. His framing: the goal was not perfect data but standardised, comparable data that would make the carbon emissions model for cloud workloads 'less wrong and more useful.' The project launched in July 2023 with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud agreeing to sit at the same table alongside enterprise consumers like UBS.
Read how organisations came together to build RTC →
“Collaboration is essential at every level: within teams, across organisations, and even between institutions. Time is of the essence; we can't afford to wait for years to change the tech culture. The change needs to begin now.”
Pindy Bhullar
RTC Co-Lead, Sustainable IT Consultant
ClimateAction.tech / UBS
Everything You Need to Get Started
Cloud Region Metadata Table
The complete cross-provider dataset — PUE, WUE, CFE, carbon intensity, and grid zone IDs for AWS, Azure, and GCP.
Cloud Region Metadata Specification
The formal specification defining all standardised columns, naming conventions, and metric types.
From Proposal to Global Standard
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March 2023
Standard proposed
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July 2023
Working group formed
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August 2024
First dataset released
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April 2025
Standard ratified
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February 2026
V1.1 approved
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2026
ISO trajectory
Get Involved
Join the working group advancing cloud carbon transparency
Related Articles
News, insights, and updates about the Real Time Cloud standard.
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