Get a grip on data centres the Government has been told by The Green Party as it attempts to block AI data centres from receiving special planning permissions. The party’s Deputy leader Mothin Ali has said it was unacceptable that data centres were designated as “critical infrastructure,” allowing developers to avoid the usual planning requirements.
On 12 September 2024 the newly elected Labour government designated data centres as “critical national infrastructure” by putting the tech developments on an equal footing with water, energy, and emergency services systems.
Ali told the Morning Star on 21st August that public outcry over the impacts of new data centres was understandable, after The Guardian revealed that one such project in London is projected to emit as much carbon dioxide as 8,480 flights from London to New York. If approved by the London Borough of Havering, the East Havering Data Centre Campus (EHDCC) in North Ockendon, in the historic county of Essex, would be one of the largest datacentres in Europe, using 218 hectares of green belt to run servers and data storage systems for AI and cloud computing. It would produce more than 1 million tonnes of CO2 a year. Despite this, developers, Digital Reef, described the scheme as “a unique opportunity to create a sustainable data centre campus of the future”.
However, in the planning application, the company admits that the £14.7 billion project “does not align with a science-based 1.5°C compatible trajectory and achieving net zero by 2050.” According to the Climate Change Committee, the Climate Change Act (2008) madevthe UK the first country to establish a long-term legally binding framework to cut carbon emissions. It contains a target requiring emissions reductions to Net Zero by 2050. The Act puts in place a rolling cycle of statutory national risk assessments and a resulting Adaptation Programme that must address the risks. Few other countries have a statutory adaptation process of this kind. The Act has cemented the UK’s position as an international leader in tackling climate change. Since it has been put into law, other countries have also introduced their own legislation, and many have based it on the UK’s Climate Change Act (e.g. Denmark, France, Mexico, Sweden and New Zealand).
Donald Campbell, advocacy director at the tech justice non-profit Foxglove, said the centre’s projected emissions were “staggering”. He said: “The government needs to be taking concrete steps to make sure that the public and the environment aren’t left to carry the social environmental costs of the data centres. These data centres are ultimately going to be serving the wealthiest companies in the world – so they need to be required to carry that cost.”
The Guardian further reported that planning documents said that where the zero-carbon target cannot be met on site, “any shortfall would be provided through a cash in lieu contribution to the borough’s carbon offset fund.” The developer estimates that payment at about £77.6m.
So that’s alright then!