Major firms pledge to make data centres climate-neutral by 2030

The Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact sets ambitious targets for the next ten years

Leading players in the European data centre and cloud infrastructure industry have agreed to take firm steps to make their data centres climate neutral by 2030.

On Wednesday, 25 companies and 17 trade associations signed the Climate Neutral Data Center Pact - with a commitment to lead the European industry in transition to a climate neutral economy.

Big name signatories include Google, AWS, Aruba, TechUK and DigiPlex.

The Pact is a self-regulation initiative, setting ambitious and measureable targets for signatories over the next 10 years, in the following areas:

• Evidence of energy efficiency with measurable targets
• Procurement of 100 per cent carbon-free energy
• Prioritising water savings
• Repair and reuse of servers
• Exploring new ways to recycle heat

The European Commission, which played a major role in developing the new Pact, will monitor the progress the signatories make in each area.

The Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact supports both the European Green Deal (signed in 2020) and European Data Strategy. The Green Deal aims to make the EU's economy sustainable, and to make Europe the world's first climate neutral continent by 2050.

Outlining its digital strategy in February 2020, the European Commission said that it wants data centres in Europe to be greener and more responsible for a significant environmental footprint.

The Commission said that European data centres 'can and should become climate neutral by 2030'.

'Digital solutions, and data in particular, will enable a fully integrated life-cycle approach, from design through sourcing of energy, raw materials and other inputs to final products until the end-of life stage,' the Commission's digital strategy states.

Commenting on the new Pact, Alban Schmutz, Chairman of CISPE (Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe) said: "With cloud infrastructure the backbone of the European Union's digital economy, our industry is committed to the idea that we must all play a central role in addressing climate change."

"This commitment underpins a roadmap for Europe's cloud infrastructure industry to offer climate neutral services to customers by 2030," he added.

In recent years, many large tech firms have joined hands with their governments and signed key declarations to combat climate change.

In 2019, Amazon announced a string of measures aimed at lowering its greenhouse gas emissions.

In July last year, Microsoft announced that it had successfully used hydrogen fuel cells to power a data centre for two consecutive days.

Also in 2020, Apple pledged to become 'carbon neutral' throughout its entire business, manufacturing supply chain and product life cycle by 2030.

The iPhone maker said that it is already carbon-neutral across its global corporate operations, but the new pledge means that every Apple product sold worldwide would need to have zero climate impact by the end of the decade.

The news comes as President Joe Biden set out a raft of new declarations and executive orders revolving around climate change, including returning the USA to the Paris Climate Agreement.