Protesters across Europe are planning two days of action against datacentres this week with demonstrations taking place in 15 countries. More than 100 groups are joining together for the “Stop Dirty Data Centres” events on Friday and Saturday. They are calling for a moratorium on large projects, citing environmental and social costs that “we can no longer afford”.
Datacentres have become a lightning rod for concerns over artificial intelligence, given their role in developing and operating the cutting-edge technology. In the US midterm elections this week, opponents of datacentres were among the biggest winners for the Democrats. Actions across the two days include: a protest outside the Polish parliament in Warsaw; a march in Dublin; a demonstration outside a Microsoft datacentre in Denmark; a “teach-in” near the site of a planned datacentre in Amsterdam; and an event in the Brick Lane area of east London, where a datacentre development has met local opposition.
Owen Espley, the campaign’s coordinator, said communities in the US and Europe are sending a message about data centres. Groups backing the protests include Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Foxglove, a London-based campaign for “a fairer tech future”. A key factor in national and local opposition to datacentres is their impact on the environment.
By 2030, carbon dioxide emissions from AI datacentres will be six times the 2023 level, according to research by the Öko-Institut of Germany. In the UK, energy use by AI datacentres could cause the emission of up to 123m tonnes of CO2 – about as much as generated by 2.7 million people – over the next 10 years. Various social impacts are listed by the pan-European campaign, from the impact of chatbots on mental health to the threat of AI eliminating jobs and the prioritisation of datacentres over housing.
The tech industry argues that datacentres create jobs during construction and operation, and drive growth by supporting the development and deployment of AI. About 250 global datacentre projects exceeding 100 megawatts in energy demand – equivalent to about 300,000 homes per project – were announced between 2021 and 2024, with North American schemes dominating the waiting list. In the UK alone, there are 315 datacentres queueing to connect to the power grid, representing 73 gigawatts of demand compared with the entire country’s peak energy demand of 45GW.
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