Panel on the environmental impacts of data centers
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I joined an ECOS webinar organised around the release of its new whitepaper, From innovation to overshoot: How data centre expansion risks derailing climate goals, co-published with Open Future. The discussion focused on the broader context behind data centre growth: rising demand from AI and digital services, growing pressure on electricity systems, and the need to look beyond efficiency alone when assessing environmental impacts.
The webinar brought together perspectives from civil society, research, and EU policy to discuss what stronger governance could look like for data centres. Speakers included Anastasia Tsougka (ECOS), Zuzanna Warso (Open Future), Pauline Denis (The Shift Project), Nikolaos Kontinakis (European Commission, DG ENER), and me for EcoLogits. My contribution focused on the environmental footprint of digital infrastructure and why transparency, sufficiency, and more complete impact assessment need to be part of the conversation, not just energy optimisation.