Secretary of State for Energy Security Ed Miliband has admitted the level of future electricity demand from data centres is ‘inherently uncertain’, but insists that it is accounted for in the government’s emissions modelling.
The Minister was pressed by Toby Perkins MP, chair of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, about concerns that the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC’s) proposed Seventh Carbon Budget (CB7) does not account for data centre emissions.
In a letter responding to Perkins, Miliband said that the government’s modelling for CB7 accounts for potential emissions from data centres through wider projections of overall electricity demand growth.
He added that the CCC’s CB7 advice, which was published more than a year ago and sets an envelope for the UK’s emissions in the late 2030s and early 2040s, is based on these projections.
The Environmental Audit Committee published Miliband’s letter on 26 February, as it announced a new inquiry into data centres’ environmental impact. This will examine the effect that the energy and water demands of such facilities may have on the government’s net zero goals.
