WHAT ABOUT DATA CENTRES? Powering progress or slowing climate action?

About this episode

James and Daisy explore the rise of data centres and their impact on climate goals.

Demand for digital services has exploded — and with it, the rapid expansion of data centres providing the compute power behind everything from streaming and cloud storage to AI. But this growth could have serious climate consequences. In this episode, James and Daisy explore the rise of data centres. What exactly are they? Why are they becoming so central to our lives? And how can we guide their future growth to align with our climate goals? SOME RECOMMENDATIONS: Cleaning Up (2025) – An on-location podcast episode where Michael Liebreich visits Sines, Portugal, where Start Campus is building a data centre, set to be Europe’s largest. Carbon Brief (2025) – Five charts on data centre energy use and emissions. Brookings (2025) – Analysis on the future of data centres. OTHER ADVOCATES AND RESOURCES: Green Mountain – SVG-Rennesøy is a Norwegian Tier III mountain hall data centre built inside a former high security NATO ammunition storage facility and cooled by fjord seawater. The Guardian (2025) – Google plans to put AI data centres into space, with the first trial equipment sent into orbit in early 2027. Solar panels powering these data centres could be up to eight times more…

People in this episode

Hosts: James Cameron, Daisy Nicholls

Topics covered

• data centres
• climate change
• digital services
• AI
• energy use
• sustainability

Keywords

• data centres
• climate action
• digital services
• energy consumption
• AI
• sustainability
• cloud storage

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cleaning Up, Carbon Brief, Brookings, Green Mountain, The Guardian, Terrestrial Energy, NESO, BBC

Places: Sines, Portugal

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