Should new AI data centres be approved even if they make net zero targets harder to hit?
New data centres are not banned or capped in the UK: they are normally approved by local councils under planning law, and the largest can opt into a faster national consenting route. They were designated critical national infrastructure in 2024, and the government is promoting AI Growth Zones. Government estimates put data centres at 0.9–3.4% of UK emissions in the decade to 2035, while some academic modelling suggests about 12 million tonnes a year by 2035, and developers of some proposed campuses concede they do not fit net zero.
6 Opinions
Net Zero is idiotic and destroying the country and stopping the future for it is insane!
Our adversaries are so far ahead of us that it's unlikely we'll survive what's coming. But we should, at least, try. Sir Demis Hassabis should be a household name. I know from bitter experience he isn't. He and his team probably cure most, if not all, disease within a decade. The Future of AI: From Games to Digital Biology https://youtu.be/qQ91wRysPXQ?si=6DXXjZ4WahClLOkK I'd love it if more of the amazing hardware he uses were on our shores, just as a
With the state of our economy we should be focused on growing it before focusing on something like the environment where the impact that our small island makes is more a rounding error than anything
I realise it means data centres will take longer build, but approval is needed. IMO
The net-zero targets in the UK will do nothing in relations to global omissions, being so dwarfed by China’s increase, whilst killing the UK economy.
The decision should be based on more than just Net Zero alone.