{"id":284027,"date":"2026-06-30T09:31:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T13:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/data-centres-emitting-more-co2-than-thought-study\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T09:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T13:45:07","slug":"data-centres-emitting-more-co2-than-thought-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/data-centres-emitting-more-co2-than-thought-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Data centres emitting more CO2 than thought: study"},"content":{"rendered":"

Data centres emitting more CO2 than thought: study<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/science\/articles\/data-centres-emitting-more-co2-133117923.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-06-30 09:31:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.yahoo.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Data centres, whose expansion is being fuelled dramatically by the artificial intelligence boom, have a far bigger carbon footprint than previously estimated, a study said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The sprawling, power-hungry sites, used to store critical IT infrastructure like servers, are being built worldwide by companies and countries as AI applications gobble ever greater computing power.<\/p>\n

This has helped to boost their greenhouse gas emissions, with a new study by Allianz Trade estimating the centres emitted 286 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2025.<\/p>\n

This is 57 percent higher than estimates by the International Energy Agency, according to the group, which is the trade credit insurance arm of global insurer Allianz.<\/p>\n

AI already accounts for between 15 and 20 percent of electricity consumption at data centres, and this share could climb to 40 percent by 2030, the report said.<\/p>\n

“Data centres are evolving from a marginal factor into a structural driver of electricity demand in many regions,” said Patrick Hoffmann, senior climate economist at Allianz.<\/p>\n

Without steps to decarbonise power grids, data centre emissions would more than double by 2030, leading to an estimated $154 billion in annual climate damages — up from $68 billion today, the report said.<\/p>\n

Climate damage related to AI workloads could exceed $50 billion by 2030, it said.<\/p>\n

Data centres also putting huge strain on natural resources — they could require 1.3 to 1.8 trillion litres of water by 2030, comparable to Switzerland’s annual consumption, the report said.<\/p>\n

The same computing power can generate very different emission levels depending on the source of the electricity used.<\/p>\n

In India, emissions linked to electricity exceed 600 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), compared with less than 30 grams in Norway or Sweden, where power generation is largely decarbonised.<\/p>\n

According to Allianz Trade, nearly 70 percent of global data centre emissions are currently concentrated in the United States and China, the world’s AI leaders.<\/p>\n

\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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