Campaigners Demand UK Datacentre Emissions Disclosure
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- Foxglove and five other NGOs, including Friends of the Earth, wrote to technology secretary Liz Kendall demanding that the forthcoming national policy statement on datacentres require developers to show their projects will not increase UK CO2 emissions or worsen local water scarcity.
- Ofgem calculated that approximately 140 proposed datacentre schemes could require 50GW of electricity — 5GW more than Great Britain's current peak national demand — in a consultation published this month.
- MPs on the environmental audit committee launched an inquiry into datacentre environmental sustainability this week, releasing a letter from energy secretary Ed Miliband who said future energy demand from datacentres "remains inherently uncertain."
- Two named projects — Elsham in Lincolnshire and Cambois in Northumberland — each carry a planned electricity demand of 1GW, equivalent to the output of a nuclear power station, requiring matching new renewable generation.
- A proposed Google datacentre in Essex is expected to emit more than 500,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, roughly equivalent to 500 short-haul flights every week.
- The campaigners' letter calls for a mandatory environmental-impact framework, developer funding for new renewable capacity, and an end to "greenwashing" via renewable energy certificates that let companies claim green power while drawing from the fossil-fueled grid.
- A UK government spokesperson said datacentres drive economic growth and pointed to its AI energy council and existing planning rules on water scarcity as safeguards.
Why it matters: Ofgem's 50GW figure means proposed datacentres alone would exceed Britain's current peak grid demand, putting the government's already-doubted 2030 virtually carbon-free power target under direct pressure. Developers now face a disclosure requirement that could raise upfront costs and planning risk, while campaigners gain a formal lever to block projects that cannot demonstrate climate neutrality.
