Facebook is the latest global brand to commit to supporting the drive towards a more sustainable future. Its board has announced that it will only be using solar and wind renewable energies to power its global technology business by the end of 2020.

The brand is the biggest social media platform in the world, and its data energy centres are hugely intensive in their energy requirements. The tech giant has already exceeded its target to power 50pc of these operations with clean energy by the end of this year - it hit the target last year.

The latest target will mean that Facebook can cut its damaging greenhouse gas emissions by 75pc from their current level. By making the commitment, Facebook joins a legion of tech giants who are working to fight against climate change at a significant level, demonstrating to the world's governments that industry will take steps to tackle carbon emissions even where governments fail to fully take action.

In 2017, 62pc of the company's energy emissions were from its data centres, most of which are located in Oregon on the US West Coast.

Rival tech giant Google is one of the other companies that has pledged to move to a cleaner energy footprint after saying that it would move towards clean energy back in 2012. Last year, it confirmed that it was now operating its entire business from 100pc renewables, becoming one of the biggest corporate purchasers of solar and wind power in the process. It now buys green energy from renewable projects worth 2.6GW of output and plans to grow its energy portfolio as its operations continue to grow.

As well as providing a cleaner future, the switch to renewables on this scale brings new employment and a healthier environment to local communities.