We’ve hit our UK data centre challenge Crowdjustice target! PLUS – new report: 10 new data centres would wipe out ALL annual carbon savings from electric cars
We’ve hit our Crowdjustice target of £20,000 helping us to meet the essential costs of bringing the first legal challenge against a new hyperscale data centre in the UK being railroaded through the planning process without proper checks about the impact on our environment. Thank you to everyone who donated!
We’re still hoping to reach our stretch goal of £30,000 which would allow us to also make a contribution towards the staff time we need to run this case. If you’re able to help, you can donate by hitting the button below:
For now – we’ve got more news on why this case is so important. New analysis from Foxglove has revealed that just ten of the new, large-scale data centres being built in the UK would lead to annual carbon emissions equivalent to the 2025 savings from the switch to electric cars.
The Prime Minister is promoting the “rapid build-out of data centres” as part of efforts to “turbocharge AI.” However, the ‘hyperscale’ facilities being planned and constructed will consume vast quantities of electricity, resulting in significant increases in UK carbon emissions.
Foxglove research, based on data from developers’ own documents, indicates that just ten of the largest data centres currently in planning or construction will cause annual climate emissions equivalent to 2,745,538 tonnes of CO2.
This would all but wipe out the projected 2025 savings from the switch to electric cars, which the Climate Change Committee estimates will total 2.9 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
However, even the figure of 2.7m tonnes is a significant under-estimate. There are at least as many large data centres planned which have not provided carbon emissions figures, and so were not included in the total.
On top of that, the figures that actually were provided by developers are likely to be an underestimate, due to the significant inconsistencies in how they are calculated: some developers’ estimates for similar-sized data centres are 100 times smaller than others’, for example.
As we’ve said before, there is a critical knowledge gap about the environmental impact of new hyperscale data centres on Britain’s environment. That’s due in no small part to the fact there is no reliable, overall figure for expected emissions from by new data centres available from either government or industry.
Foxglove is calling on the government to properly scrutinise and act on the environmental impact of data centres.
Foxglove Advocacy Director Donald Campbell said: “The government has its head in the sand over the huge environmental cost of the data centres it is ramming through the planning system.
“There has been no proper assessment of the huge increase in energy demand, and massive carbon emissions, that will result from the construction of large numbers of ‘hyperscale’ data centres.
“Worse still, ministers are pushing these data centres through the planning system without even bothering to carry out environmental impact assessments.
“Unless the Government changes course, the result will be that Big Tech reaps the profits while the British public are left to pick up the tab, in terms of environmental damage, carbon emissions, and soaring energy costs.”
You can read the full report here: