Microsoft · European Union · The Register
Report confirms proposed rewrite gives operators more freedom to shop around for a greener grade
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The European Union's proposed environmental rating system for datacenters may be amended in response to lobbying from IT industry heavyweights, making it easier to offset greenhouse gas emissions using clean energy certificates.
Key facts
- Last year, the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact (CNDCP) expressed concerns about standards for data campus efficiency the European Commission was considering, based on feedback from mandatory
- The group lists tech giants AWS, Microsoft, and Google among its signatories, as well as datacenter operators like Digital Realty, NorthC, and Vantage Data Centers
- Also last year, the Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE) trade body was critical of the EU's Water Resilience Strategy, warning that burdensome regulatory demands regarding water
- Another body, the European Data Centre Association (EUDCA), issued a statement this week affirming its "unwavering commitment" to climate-neutral datacenters and sustainable digital growth
Summary
Report says proposed rewrite gives operators more freedom to shop around for a greener grade. The European Commission is weakening its original proposals after pressure from datacenter operators and tech giants. The Commission published a draft regulation in March proposing an A-to-G rating scale for datacenters, based on their energy and water efficiency. That earlier draft specified that facilities could offset greenhouse gas emissions by investing in clean energy certificates, but only if the projects concerned were in the same region as the data campus itself.