Beware unintended consequences

The Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact (the Pact), a collaboration of over 120 data centre operators and associations working towards climate neutral data centres by 2030, has published a paper highlighting some areas of concern with the European Commission’s proposal for a sustainability rating scheme for Europe’s data centres. Whilst the Pact has supported the concept and the drafting of the proposal throughout, it believes that in key areas its advice and insight has not been clearly heard. Several areas in particular give cause for concern; the unintended consequences of which could damage Europe’s competition and growth agendas in the digital era.

The Pact applauds the Commission for aiming to provide consistent, clear and comparable information to allow data centre customers to make informed choices. However, as it stands the proposed scheme offers some raw data and some ‘classes’ of efficiency without considering the interrelated nature of these systems. The Commission itself understand that to be effective the rating scheme needs a single consolidated label that accounts for all factors.

Europe’s climate also varies significantly from north to south, yet the current proposal takes no account of this. Without climate normalisation, the rating scheme may inadvertently hinder or make economically unviable, data centre developments in the south even as demand there grows.

The CNDCP paper also outlines other areas where further consideration of the real-world benefits, and potential unintended consequences of the rating scheme should be more deeply examined. Measures that look good on paper may in fact not deliver the desired environmental benefits. Some may also favour the largest developers and operators and could potentially lock out smaller European competitors from this important market at a time when sovereignty and strategic autonomy are high on the pollical agenda.

Commenting on the paper, Lex Coors, chair of the CNDCP board, said “We have collaborated with the EU on this scheme from the outset, and, as the paper makes it clear, we are fully supportive of efficiency ratings for data centres. We are not trying to advocate for lower targets, but to ensure that the Commission understands the potential unintended consequences of some of its proposal. We offer these thoughts based on real-world data and we hope the Commission will use them to further adapt its proposal in the coming weeks.”