{
  "id": 8956341,
  "title": "EU moves to curb energy and water for data centres",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/21/eu-moves-to-curb-energy-and-water-for-data-centres",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-21T15:49:57.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Euronews",
    "slug": "euronews",
    "url": "https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/09/21/eu-moves-to-curb-energy-and-water-for-data-centres"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The European Union is drafting sustainability guidelines for the power-intensive future of artificial intelligence (AI), but tech behemoths like Microsoft are already shaping the direction of these new rules. The EU will begin issuing electronic sustainability labels to data centers later this month if they exceed 500 kilowatts of installed capacity and are required to report under the bloc's energy efficiency standards. The aim of these ratings is to provide transparency about energy use and to inform more informed policymaking and procurement of sustainable digital assets and services across Europe. The EU aims to triple data center capacity in the bloc by 2035, as part of an effort to lessen reliance on Big Tech and develop its own AI capabilities.\n\nEU lawmakers have recently expressed concerns about Microsoft's attempts to sway the new rules. Simultaneously, the EU is dealing with an escalating energy crisis, and data centers have increasingly become a significant source of electricity demand and have faced opposition from local communities. While the EU acknowledges the critical role data centers play in supporting cloud computing, AI, and digital services, their rapid growth is straining electricity networks, water resources, and local communities.\n\nIn 2024, European data centers consumed 68 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, and the EU projects this number will surge to 114 TWh by 2030, accounting for 3.2% of all the electricity in the bloc, up from the current 2.5%. The new sustainability label intends to enable facilities to be compared on power and water efficiency as well as the sourcing of their electricity. However, despite mandatory reporting requirements for data centers above 500 kW since 2023, compliance remains incomplete. Industry enforcement rests largely with EU countries, with the real pressure expected to materialize early next year.\n\nFor now, the Commission is not imposing hard ceilings on energy or water consumption. Instead, minimum performance standards will be introduced in 2027 to establish a floor and prevent new facilities from being built below certain efficiency standards. This \"probationary period\" provides a window of opportunity for the industry, which has been lobbying the Commission for sustainability parameters. Microsoft, in a July 2026 submission to Germany's federal government, expressed support for clean power, energy, and water efficiency as sustainability indicators while specifically requesting changes to the proposed water-efficiency bands in the label.\n\nCritics, such as Bram Vranken, a researcher and campaigner at the watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), have raised concerns about Big Tech's influence over the new EU rules on data centers. Vranken argues that the Microsoft confidentiality clause is kept, albeit rewritten, which could lead to much of the information in the label being inaccessible for verification. He contends that despite the EU's ambitions to become a leading AI continent, the new rules also highlight the tension between rapidly expanding infrastructure for AI and the need to regulate the US technology companies expected to provide much of it.",
  "summary": "The European Commission has unveiled new sustainability rules aimed at monitoring water and energy consumption of energy-hungry data centres - although minimum performance rules will only be introduced in 2027.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}