Twenty-five companies and seventeen trade associations from across Europe have agreed to take specific steps to make data centres climate neutral by 2030.

One year after the adoption of the European Green Deal, cloud infrastructure providers and data centre operators have created the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact - a self-regulatory initiative - with leading industry associations.

Frans Timmermans, European Commission executive vice president for the European Green Deal, said: “Citizens across Europe use ever more technology to go about their daily lives and want this technology to also help secure a sustainable future for people and the planet.

“Today’s pledge from important parts of the data industry constitutes a promise to society and offers a welcome first step towards achieving our common ambitions for a smart and sustainable future.”

Alban Schmutz, chairman of Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) said: “With cloud infrastructure the backbone of the European Union’s digital economy, our industry is committed to the idea that we must all play a central role in addressing climate change.

“This commitment underpins a roadmap for Europe’s cloud infrastructure industry to offer climate neutral services to customers by 2030.”

The Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact has been developed in co-operation with the European Commission.

It supports both the European Green Deal, which aims to make Europe the world’s first climate neutral continent by 2050, and the European Data Strategy by making EU data centres climate neutral by 2030.

The initiative sets goals and commits signatories to ensuring their data centres are climate neutral by setting measurable targets for 2025 and 2030 in the following areas:

-Prove energy efficiency with measurable targets

-Purchase 100 per cent carbon-free energy

-Prioritise water conservation

-Reuse and repair servers

-Look for ways to recycle heat

Progress towards achieving climate neutral data centres will be monitored by the European Commission twice a year.

Signatories:

Cloud providers and operators of data centres:

3DS Outscale (Dassault Systèmes), Altuhost, Aruba, Atos, AWS (Amazon Web Services), CyrusOne, Data4, DigiPlex, Digital Realty/Interxion, Equinix, FlameNetworks, Gigas, Google, Ikoula, Ilger, Infloclip, Irideos, ITnet, LCL, Leaseweb, NTT, OVHcloud, Register, Scaleway and Seeweb

Trade associations:

CISPE, Cloud28+, Cloud Community Poland, Danish Cloud Community, Datacenter Industrien, Data Centre Alliance, Dutch Data Center Association, Dutch Hosting Providers Association, Eco - Alliance for strengthening digital infrastructures in Germany, EuroCloud Croatia, EuroCloud France, EUDCA - the European Data Centre Association, France Datacenter, Host in Scotland, IKT-Norge, ISPConnect and TechUK

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