Event: Evaluating the Climate & Socio-Environmental Impact of Data Centers
by Madhuri Karak & Cathy Richards
The fast pace of AI development involves a complex value chain that spans data providers, cloud service operators, and hardware manufacturers spread across the globe. Data centers are the single most visible element of the AI Rush. They’re loud, large, and expropriate vast amounts of public resources (electricity, land, and water) to deploy machine learning systems. Global electricity consumption by data centers is expected to double to over 1,000 TWh by 2026—equivalent to Japan’s annual electricity use. Concerns over grid capture (including renewables), grid sustainability, generation of e-waste, greenhouse gas emissions, and water usage of their operations are compounded by opaque non-disclosure agreements between local governments and tech companies, allowing for little or no public scrutiny of data center expansion.
A key factor limiting data center regulation is the patchwork of different environmental standards across industries and regions. For example, data centers in Europe might have a different energy standard than data centers in the US, where they continue to operate largely with non-renewable energy sources. Alternatively, data centers might be allowed inside urban concentrations in some US states, not in others. This conversation brings together two researchers who’ve been working on this topic from opposite sides of the Atlantic, in the EU and the US. Together, we will unpack the following trends:
- How can we change the current emphasis on technological innovations in data center design (for example, cooling systems and energy-efficient hardware) as a climate mitigation solution to questions of public benefit, consultations with impacted communities, transparency in lobbying practices and how decisions about land use re-allocation are made?
- Regions previously impacted by institutional neglect or environmental injustices and that are once again threatened by AI infrastructure development. How can post-industrial communities be supported through these newer industrial transformations driven by the tech industry?
- How might we consolidate transnational linkages between data center activisms happening in geographically disparate locations all over the world?
- How might we collectively grow the publicly available pool of data on the socio-environmental impacts of data centers?
The MERL Tech Initiative’s Natural Language Processing Community of Practice is hosting an event on April 14th at 12 pm ET / 6 pm CET to discuss how this emergent data center regulation landscape may affect our work as MERL Professionals and non-profit workers, how they might affect wider society, and what opportunities exist for advocates to raise concerns and fight for an approach to AI industry that is ethical, responsible and rooted in socio-environmental well-being. We’ll be joined by two brilliant speakers, Anastasia Tsougka and Hannah Lipstein, for an hour-long conversation. Please register to join.
Get to know our Speakers
Anastasia Tsougka is a climate and energy policy specialist working at the intersection of EU regulation, technical standards, and implementation. She is currently a Senior Policy Analyst at Environmental Defense Fund Europe, where she focuses on the implementation of the EU Methane Regulation, supporting its role in strengthening transparency, emissions reductions, and energy market resilience. Previously, she was a Programme Manager at the Environmental Coalition on Standards (ECOS), where she led policy and technical work on energy transition-related topics, including hydrogen, batteries, and data centres & AI. Her work included participating in European and international standardisation processes, working closely with policymakers, industry, and civil society. Earlier in her career, she has worked in the European Parliament and as an EU correspondent covering energy policy. She holds an MSc in International Relations from the University of Amsterdam and is currently specialising in EU Policy-Making and Governance at KU Leuven.
Hannah Lipstein is a researcher and program associate with Data & Society’s Climate, Technology, and Justice program. At Data & Society, she studies the environmental impacts of AI across its full supply chain. She advances strategies of resistance, which include data center site fights, labor organizing, and greener computing technology. With 15 years of activist and professional experience in social movements, she is most interested in how communities can fight back against the interlocking matrices of exploitative technologies, resource extraction, growth at all costs, and the war machine. Over the years, she has worked as a tall ship sailor on environmental education and research vessels; her up-close view into the maritime shipping industry sparked her fixation on the fossil fuel-powered physical infrastructures underpinning the global economy. Hannah holds a master’s degree in media, technology, and democracy from American University and a bachelor’s degree in women’s and gender studies from Wellesley College.
You can read more about her writing on critical minerals and ongoing fights over data center expansion in the US here and here.
Join us
This session is taking place on April 14th at 12 pm ET/6 pm CET. Please register to join.
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