Data Centres: Powering AI or costing the earth?

The AI power grab nobody voted for — Big Tech is cashing in. Communities and the climate are picking up the bill. Time to fight back.

New hyperscale data centres are expected to be one of the major drivers of global growth in electricity demand in the coming years. Governments are being promised jobs, growth and economic revival. But as tech giants roll back their climate commitments and build new fossil fuel capacity to power their data centres, the reality looks darker: net zero targets undermined, water supplies degraded, and communities displaced. Even supposedly ‘green’ data centres risk diverting renewable energy from the transition it was meant to power. It remains unclear whether anyone beyond the world’s wealthiest tech companies will benefit. Meanwhile, the public and the climate risk being left to pick up the costs.

Join lawyers, campaigners, activists, economists and lawmakers for a lively conversation about what AI infrastructure expansion within planetary boundaries could actually look like, what effective regulation requires — and whether governments and regulators will act in time.

*Further speakers to be announced in the coming days!