Global Mayors Unite to Shape Sustainable Data Centre Development
Forty mayors from cities around the world have come together to sign a new pact aimed at ensuring the sustainable development and operation of urban data centres. This initiative, launched by C40 Cities—a network of nearly 100 cities focused on addressing climate change—during London Climate Action Week, outlines a vision for maintaining environmental integrity while supporting the growing demand for digital infrastructure.
The pact addresses concerns about the impact of data centres on natural resources, energy costs, and climate goals. While many new data centres are being built in rural areas due to lower land costs, metropolitan regions are also experiencing significant pressure. Experts from C40 note that there are currently approximately 1,700 data centres within their network of cities, with development expected to increase by over 40 per cent in 50 of these urban centres.
The agreement was sparked by concerns raised by mayors from Phoenix and Melbourne, Australia, regarding the high electricity and water consumption of data centres, as well as their competition with housing developers for available land.
Cassie Sutherland, a managing director at C40, explained the universal nature of these challenges: "We found out that the challenges in every region around the world were very similar. Our approach was to say OK, how do we now use a global mayoral voice to come together with the conditions under which they will accept data centres."
Data centres are often located in cities to provide quick response times for firms using artificial intelligence and to be close to major companies' operations. These facilities tend to form clusters, creating ecosystems in metropolitan areas that can outweigh factors like land costs. However, a recent trend has seen some data centres shift to rural locations, according to Andrew Batson, global head of data centre research at JLL.
However, growing political and local opposition has emerged due to fears of blackouts, rising electricity bills, and the substantial water demands of data centres. In response, some states are now suspending tax breaks or considering moratoriums on new data centre construction.
Key Focus Areas of the Pact
The pact emphasizes several key areas for data centre developments:
- Site Selection: Urban data centres should be built on abandoned or underutilized land in areas that minimize negative impacts on noise, heat, and air pollution.
- Clean Energy: Developments should be powered by renewable energy and battery storage.
- Affordability: Data centres should reduce water use and emissions, as well as capture waste heat.
- Community Engagement: The mayors want data centres that create jobs, buy local goods and services, pay for their own infrastructure upgrades, and listen to community feedback.
Participation from Across the Globe
About half of the participating mayors are from the U.S., including Seattle and the California cities of Palo Alto and Riverside. In the Southwest, Phoenix and Albuquerque, New Mexico, joined. On the East Coast, Beverly, Massachusetts, signed, as did Lincoln, Nebraska; Chicago and Cleveland in the Midwest, and Miami in the South.
European cities in Greece, Spain, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Norway joined, as did Montreal in Canada. The pact includes African cities in Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Kenya, as well as Asia-Pacific cities in India and Australia, and Lebanon in the Middle East.
Sutherland emphasized the need to translate the vision into action, with each city using the pact as a framework for its own regulations or guidelines. Mayors are limited in what they can do unilaterally, so they'll need support from other government officials, utilities, and the private sector.
Phoenix and Melbourne: Case Studies
Phoenix is among the top 10 data centre markets in North America. The Phoenix metropolitan area has pending permit requests that would double the electricity demand if all of these data centres were built. Developers are drawn there for its reliable power and predictable weather.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego expressed concerns that investments in data centres are worsening climate change and not meeting the needs of communities. She highlighted the importance of forming a unified front to help improve data centres everywhere, ensuring that developers don't simply look for communities unable to advocate for their own benefits.
"We understand the importance of this innovation, it’s creating great jobs in our community," Gallego said. "We just want to make sure that we get it right for our local residents and for the health of our planet."
Melbourne's water concerns are also significant. If Melbourne follows through on all its plans, data centres could annually consume up to 20 billion liters (5.3 billion gallons) worth of water, or about 4% of the drinking water supply, according to the city’s Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece.
The water supply is already strained by population growth, longer dry periods, and more extreme heat driven by climate change. Melbourne played a key role in the pact, with Reece stating that stricter environmental regulations there likely won't threaten future plans. He emphasized that data centres will go where there's enough power and land, and where they're close to the markets and companies using artificial intelligence.
"We don’t want to see a race to the bottom between cities where governments, desperate for investment, are chasing data centres on any terms possible," he said. "We want to see a better framework in place so that the investment rush in data centres can be a win-win — a win for investors and also a win for local communities."
Southeast Asia's Role in the Data Centre Landscape
Southeast Asia is emerging as a potential data centre hub. As of Tuesday, none of the region's cities endorsed the pact, but conversations are ongoing. The region accounts for a quarter of global energy demand growth, partially driven by more than 2,000 data centres in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, according to the think tank Ember.
The annual energy demand from these data centres will more than double in the next five years, the International Energy Agency said. This is most evident in Malaysia, which has attracted investments and interest from tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Nvidia.
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