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Data centres: urgent UK policy and regulatory action are needed
Key Points
McNamara’s call for coordinated international regulatory action by governments on hyperscale data centres owing to health and environmental threats is timely.1 Precaution is needed. The costs of hyperscale data centres can damage economies, communities, public health, and sustainability but remain externalised and “hidden.” Companies avoid them.
McNamara’s call for coordinated international regulatory action by governments on hyperscale data centres owing to health and environmental threats is timely.1 Precaution is needed. The costs of hyperscale data centres can damage economies, communities, public health, and sustainability but remain externalised and “hidden.” Companies avoid them.Good quality evidence is absent in UK data centre planning proposals. Centres are approved without “a sufficiently developed evidence base on health consequences for nearby populations.”2 The Local Government Association (LGA) wants standardised disclosure requirements because of “major sustainability, infrastructure, and governance challenges.”3 The LGA found that current company reporting failed to provide “site specific, verifiable information needed to assess energy use, water consumption, emissions, or cumulative impacts at a local level.”3Environmental regulators found that flood risk caused by climate change was underestimated in a recent Scottish hyperscale data centre proposal and that no full analysis of emergency outages and risks had been undertaken. Uncertainties,...