EU considers weaker climate rules for data centres, draft shows

In short: The EU is considering softer climate rules for data centres after lobbying from major tech companies and industry groups.

What happened

The European Union is preparing a new draft proposal that would weaken earlier plans to rate data centres on their energy and water use. Data centres are buildings full of computers that power things like streaming, cloud storage, and many AI services.

Earlier drafts included a “traffic light” rating system and stricter rules on how data centres could claim they were using clean energy. One key idea was that companies should only count clean energy certificates from newer projects, and from power generated around the same time and in the same area as the data centre.

The latest draft, dated June 30 and seen by the Financial Times, drops several of those requirements. It would let data centre operators use cheaper and more flexible certificates, including certificates linked to nuclear power.

Critics say this could allow a mismatch between what a data centre actually uses and what it claims to support. For example, a data centre using electricity at night on Germany’s grid, which still includes coal, could still “cancel out” its emissions by buying certificates tied to solar power generated during the day in Spain (like saying you paid for someone else’s clean power, even if your own plug is still on a dirtier supply).

Why it matters

Data centres use large amounts of electricity, and demand is rising as AI grows. The EU is also dealing with extreme heat and has plans to expand data centre capacity in the next five to seven years. How these rules are set could affect emissions, energy prices, and how confidently the public can trust corporate claims about “clean” electricity.

Source: Financial Times