Future-Proofing Digital Infrastructure: Climate Resilience in the Data Centre Sector
Access our report examining how the UK’s data centres are adapting to climate risks and the steps needed to ensure their long-term resilience.
As climate risks intensify, data centres – a cornerstone of the UK economy and society – are under mounting pressure to adapt. With their recent designation as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), the role of data centres in sustaining the UK’s digital economy and ensuring operational resilience has never been more critical.
Data centres face a dual challenge – maintaining operational continuity amidst escalating physical climate risks such as heatwaves and water stress while navigating transitional risks linked to evolving regulations and shifting market dynamics. This report, submitted under Defra's Adaptation Reporting Power, provides a comprehensive analysis of these challenges and the sector's efforts to adapt.
The report explores the physical and transitional climate risks facing the sector, strategies for building resilience, and key barriers to adaptation. It highlights how data centres are proactively addressing these challenges through innovation, adherence to industry standards, and collaboration. Recommendations for policymakers and insights into resilience-building across interconnected sectors are also included.
Key findings
· Physical risks: Heatwaves and water stress are identified as the highest climate risks for UK data centres. Heatwaves increase cooling demands and strain energy infrastructure, while water stress challenges the use of evaporative cooling systems. Building in redundancies across power, cooling, and connectivity systems is essential to maintaining operations under these conditions.
· Transitional risks: Evolving regulations, market trends, and technological advancements pose transitional risks for data centres, often resulting in unforeseen costs and operational adjustments. Maintaining compliance while continuing to invest in resilience measures remains a significant challenge for the sector.
· Resilience by default: Data centres are designed with resilience in mind, with site selection, operational planning, and redundancy as core principles. However, as climate challenges escalate, these inherent measures need to be continuously adapted to evolving risks.
· Self-regulation: The data centre sector demonstrates high levels of self-regulation, often exceeding government mandates. Operators adopt stringent industry standards and proactively address resilience gaps, but government incentives – such as streamlined permitting for resilient designs or targeted grants – could further drive innovation and compliance.
· On-premise data centres: Many small on-premise data centres, especially in the public sector, lack the resilience measures seen in commercial facilities. These facilities are often underfunded, rely on outdated infrastructure, and are not obligated to meet industry-wide resilience standards, making them a weak link in the UK's digital infrastructure.
· Clustering: The concentration of data centres in specific regions, such as Greater London, intensifies the impact of localised climate risks, such as heatwaves or power disruptions. While clustering is driven by proximity to fibre and energy infrastructure, it highlights the need for more geographically diverse data centre developments.
· Dependencies on utilities: The sector’s reliance on energy and water infrastructure poses significant risks. Inadequate grid capacity is particularly concerning as energy demand surges with the adoption of AI. Meanwhile, trade-offs between energy and water efficiency in cooling systems add complexity to resilience efforts.
· Policymaker engagement: Data centres report that policymakers often lack an understanding of their operational realities. Greater dialogue and collaboration between the sector and government are essential to aligning regulatory frameworks with the unique needs of data centres and fostering resilience.
· Areas for improvement: Data centres excel at resilience planning but could benefit from greater open-mindedness, particularly in adopting new technologies and approaches for mitigating power disruptions. Enhanced investments in research and development (R&D) are essential to achieving sustainability and resilience outcomes.
Resilience is a big part of why the data centre industry exists. Our changing climate absolutely requires further adaptions and planning, but for any reputable data centre operator, these assessments will be captured by well-established management systems which already deal with a myriad of dynamic risks and opportunities. Various operators have contributed to this report and brought together valuable insights, sharing different perspectives on the nature of climate-related risks to data centres in the UK.
Helen Munro, Head of Environment & Sustainability
Pulsant
Policy recommendations
In the report, techUK proposed a series of recommendations to the UK Government, which include:
· Mandate industry-wide standards to ensure all data centres meet a minimum level of resilience, providing consistency and reliability across the sector as climate risks increase.
· Conduct spot check exercises on a subset of on-premise data centres, across both public and private sectors, to ensure that resilience measures are appropriate for the type of data being managed.
· Create a central register for all public sector data centres to improve transparency and ensure that government facilities are adequately prepared for climate risks.
· Include data centres in the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) consenting regime to streamline the approval process for large-scale projects critical to the UK's digital infrastructure.
· Expedite the planning application process and ensure consistent handling of applications across local authorities to make it easier to develop new data centres.
· Prioritise grid modernisation to increase capacity and meet the growing energy demands of the sector.
· Encourage continuous dialogue between Ofgem and the Environment Agency to address the intersecting challenges of energy and water use in data centres.
· Invest in renewable energy sources, nuclear power, and green hydrogen to ensure data centres have reliable and sustainable energy access.
· Expand the Skills Toolkit to promote green skills, while also leveraging the Growth and Skills Levy to support intensive courses for filling the growing skills gap in the data centre sector.
· Reform the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) to exclude data centres from the regulations.
· Adopt a flexible approach to heat network zoning for data centres, focusing on new developments and small-scale heat export projects such as those involving greenhouses or fish farms.
· Include data centres owned by public bodies in scope of the upcoming sustainability disclosure requirements to improve transparency around their climate impact and support the integration of nature-related reporting frameworks.
· Create a digital platform for developers in scope of Biodiversity Net Gain regulations to upload their plans and extend the regulations to the rest of the UK.
· Involve data centre representatives in government working groups focused on climate change to ensure that the sector's operational realities are understood and reflected in policymaking.
· Facilitate greater participation in the Data Infrastructure Forum by relevant government departments, to ensure cross-sector collaboration and alignment between the data centre industry and climate resilience initiatives.
Weronika joined techUK as a Programme Manager for Sustainability in October 2023.
Her role involves advocating for the tech sector in front of key policymakers and stakeholders. Weronika also leads the environmental and sustainability efforts within the Data Centres Group.
Prior to joining techUK, Weronika worked in public affairs and government relations in the legal sector, focusing on innovation and ESG within financial services. She also spent 2 years working as a Caseworker at Parliament. She holds a BA in Politics & International Relations from Queen Mary University of London.
Outside of work, Weronika can be found on a tennis court, at the gym, practicing yoga, or indulging in her love for Taylor Swift's music as a dedicated Swiftie.
Luisa C. Cardani is the Head of the Data Centres Programme at techUK, aiming to provide a collective voice for UK operators and working with government to improve business environment for the data centres sector.
Prior to joining techUK, Luisa worked in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as the Head of International Data Protection, where she led on the development of elements of the UK's data protection and privacy policy. In her role, she was also the UK official representative for the EOCD Privacy Guidelines Informal Advisory Group.
She has held a number of position in government, including leading on cross-cutting data provisions in the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, and in high priority cross-departmental projects when working in the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
She holds an M.Sc. from University College London's Department of Political Sciences.
Chief Operating Officer & Director of Markets, techUK
Matthew Evans
Chief Operating Officer & Director of Markets, techUK
Matt Evans is techUK's Chief Operating Officer and leads our Market Programme teams.
The Market Programme teams help techUK members apply innovative technology solutions across a range of sectors, including the Public Sector, Telecoms, Climate, Financial Services and Cyber. Matt also leads our Nations and Regions work.
Prior to his appointment in early 2019, Matt led techUK’s Smart Infrastructure and IoT work, as well as being CEO of the Broadband Stakeholder Group (now Digital Connectivity Forum). During this time he led the telecoms industry’s approach to lowering the cost of network deployment, played a key role in coordinating it’s response to Brexit and was closely involved in the development of the Government’s Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review. He also assisted in the development of the UK’s first secure by design Code of Practice aimed at consumer IoT, oversaw the publication of a paper outlining the tech sector’s view of future mobility services and drove engagement around the use of digital twins.
Prior to joining techUK, Matt worked in Arqiva's public policy team, across the broadcast and telecoms markets. Before that he was a researcher for an MP at Westminster.
Associate Director for Climate, Environment and Sustainability, techUK
Craig Melson
Associate Director for Climate, Environment and Sustainability, techUK
Craig is Associate Director for Climate, Environment and Sustainability and leads on our work in these areas ranging from climate change, ESG disclosures and due diligence, through to circular economy, business and human rights, conflict minerals and post-Brexit regulation.
Prior to joining techUK he worked in public affairs and policy has an avid interest in new and emerging technologies. Craig has a degree in Ancient History from King’s College London and spends his time watching Watford FC and holding out hope for Half Life 3.
techUK provides a collective voice for UK Data Centre operators working with government to improve the business environment for our members. We keep members up to date with the key technical and regulatory developments that may impact growth and on funding opportunities that may increase commercial competitiveness. Visit the programme page here.
2nd UK Datacentre Investment Forum, 6 February
Datacentre power consumption in the UK will increase six-fold, just in the next ten years. The supply of massive power to support expansion of existing facilities and the roll out of GW digital campuses across the country foretells significant changes in the structure and expansion of the datacentre industry.
Our members develop strong networks, build meaningful partnerships and grow their businesses as we all work together to create a thriving environment where industry, government and stakeholders come together to realise the positive outcomes tech can deliver.
Luisa C. Cardani is the Head of the Data Centres Programme at techUK, aiming to provide a collective voice for UK operators and working with government to improve business environment for the data centres sector.
Prior to joining techUK, Luisa worked in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as the Head of International Data Protection, where she led on the development of elements of the UK's data protection and privacy policy. In her role, she was also the UK official representative for the EOCD Privacy Guidelines Informal Advisory Group.
She has held a number of position in government, including leading on cross-cutting data provisions in the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, and in high priority cross-departmental projects when working in the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
She holds an M.Sc. from University College London's Department of Political Sciences.
Weronika joined techUK as a Programme Manager for Sustainability in October 2023.
Her role involves advocating for the tech sector in front of key policymakers and stakeholders. Weronika also leads the environmental and sustainability efforts within the Data Centres Group.
Prior to joining techUK, Weronika worked in public affairs and government relations in the legal sector, focusing on innovation and ESG within financial services. She also spent 2 years working as a Caseworker at Parliament. She holds a BA in Politics & International Relations from Queen Mary University of London.
Outside of work, Weronika can be found on a tennis court, at the gym, practicing yoga, or indulging in her love for Taylor Swift's music as a dedicated Swiftie.
Programme Assistant, Data Centres, Climate, Environment and Sustainability, Market Access, techUK
Lucas Banach
Programme Assistant, Data Centres, Climate, Environment and Sustainability, Market Access, techUK
Lucas Banach is Programme Assistant at techUK, he works on a range of programmes including Data Centres; Climate, Environment & Sustainability; Market Access and Smart Infrastructure and Systems.
Before that Lucas who joined in 2008, held various roles in our organisation, which included his role as Office Executive, Groups and Concept Viability Administrator, and most recently he worked as Programme Executive for Public Sector. He has a postgraduate degree in International Relations from the Andrzej Frycz-Modrzewski Cracow University.
