European Activists Stage Datacentre Protests in 15 Countries, Seeking Moratorium on 100-MW Projects
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Nov 5
European Activists Stage Datacentre Protests in 15 Countries, Seeking Moratorium on 100-MW Projects
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Nov 5
Summary
More than 100 groups plan two days of anti-datacentre protests across 15 European countries on Friday and Saturday, pressing politicians to halt large new projects.
Campaigners say AI-linked datacentres carry environmental and social costs Europe can no longer absorb, citing research that AI datacentre CO2 emissions could reach six times 2023 levels by 2030.
Actions range from a protest outside Poland's parliament to marches in Dublin, demonstrations at a Microsoft site in Denmark and events in Amsterdam and east London, with several hundred expected at the biggest gatherings.
The industry argues datacentres create construction and operating jobs and underpin AI-driven growth, even as project pipelines keep swelling.
About 250 datacentre projects above 100 megawatts were announced globally from 2021 to 2024, while 315 UK facilities are already queued for grid connections totaling 73 GW against national peak demand of 45 GW.
As AI's thirst for power threatens European grids, could your city's next blackout be caused by a nearby dirty datacentre?
Can the tech industry's promises of district heating truly offset the massive environmental toll of our rapidly expanding AI addiction?
With governments bypassing local opposition to build tech infrastructure, will the explosive growth of AI price communities out of their own neighborhoods?