Hello! It's been a while since I wrote about artificial intelligence and Big Tech's impact on environmental, social and governance issues. So, today's newsletter will seek to give you a crash course on what's been happening in the AI and ESG space. A few stories caught my eye this week and prompted me to focus on this issue today and they are all linked by one thing – data centers. The number of data centers, which store computing infrastructure, is growing exponentially as the world increasingly uses AI and cloud computing. But the energy intensive centers also pose another challenge – water use. The first story takes us to the land down under, where authorities in Australia approved construction of data centers without requiring measurable plans to cut water use, raising concerns the sector's rapid growth will leave residents competing for the resource. The New South Wales state government green-lit all 10 data center applications it has ruled on since expanding its planning powers in 2021, from owners like Microsoft, Amazon and Blackstone's AirTrunk, documents reviewed by Reuters show. Fewer than half the approved applications gave projections of how much water they would save using alternative sources. Also on my radar today: |
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Cranes tower over the AirTrunk data centre that is under construction in Western Sydney, Australia. REUTERS/Hollie Adams |
How much water would these data centers consume? The centers would ultimately use up to 9.6 gigalitres a year of clean water, or nearly 2% of Sydney's maximum supply, the documents show. Sydney state planning law says data center developers must "demonstrate how the development minimizes ... consumption of energy, water ... and material resources" but does not require projections on water usage or savings. "There is already a shortfall between supply and demand," said Ian Wright, a former scientist for Sydney Water who is now an associate professor of environmental science at Western Sydney University. As more data centers are built, "their growing thirst in drought times will be very problematic," he added. But there's already been a deceleration of a data center boom in some countries. This week, Malaysia decided to slow down construction of more data centers as the nation grapples with power grid capacity and water resource constraints. Additionally, Singapore had a three-year moratorium on new data center builds until January 2022 due to power and water constraints, before announcing last year that it would unlock just 300 megawatts (MW) of data center capacity "in the near term". |
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Accelerating data centers |
While some countries are pumping the brake on more data centers, others are slamming down the accelerator and going full throttle. Construction spending on U.S. data centers reached an all-time high of $40 billion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate in June, as technology giants continue pouring billions into AI infrastructure, according to a Bank of America Institute report. Earlier this year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) that power-hungry data centers will push U.S. electricity consumption to record highs in 2025 and 2026. Elsewhere, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed an executive order aimed at luring data centers to the country by exempting some related equipment from federal taxes, as well as a bill to regulate digital competition. Meanwhile, Indonesia's sovereign wealth fund is prioritizing digital infrastructure and renewable energy to attract foreign partners and support national economic development, with CIO Christopher Ganis highlighting data centers and supporting assets such as subsea cables as key focus areas. Over in Britain, Google announced a 5 billion-pound ($6.8 billion) investment, including a new data center in Waltham Cross, north of London, while cloud computing firm CoreWeave said its 1.5 billion pound backing would fund energy-efficient data centers in partnership with Scottish firm DataVita, bringing its total UK investment to 2.5 billion pounds. |
Palestinian Najwa Abu Hamada discusses embryos destroyed at Gaza's Al-Basma Fertility Clinic during the late-2023 Israeli offensive, in an interview. Doha, Qatar. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa |
- Reproductive rights and Gaza: Women who stored embryos at Gaza's Al-Basma IVF center – destroyed in an Israeli strike in late 2023 – share their stories after a U.N. inquiry cited the clinic's destruction among actions that it said showed Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Reuters first reported the attack, which, according to clinic founder Dr. Bahaeldeen Ghalayini, destroyed 4,000 embryos and 1,000 sperm and unfertilized egg specimens.
- Governance and Gaza: Ben & Jerry's will never be the same after co-founder Jerry Greenfield, part of the duo whose names shaped the popular U.S. ice cream brand over the last half-century, quit his role as "brand ambassador". His resignation comes after a rift and public feud with parent Unilever over the conflict in Gaza. Click here for the full Reuters story.
- Workers' rights and academia: Labor unions, faculties and students in the University of California education system sued President Donald Trump's administration over the freezing of federal funds and other actions that they say aim to stifle academic freedom. The lawsuit seeks to forbid the government from using financial threats against the system that it said were harmful and unlawful. It also aims to restore funding already suspended.
- Student loan DEI lawsuit: The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit alleging that a Rhode Island student loan forgiveness program designed to boost racial diversity in the Providence schools' faculty unlawfully discriminated against white teachers. The suit is one of the latest efforts by Trump's administration to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and programs it deems unlawfully discriminatory.
- COP30 drama: With a little over 50 days until COP30 in Belem, Brazil, the United Nations said it will increase funding to help low-income countries attend the summit, citing soaring accommodation costs in the Amazonian city. For months, Brazil has resisted calls to move the conference out of Belem, but the Brazilian COP30 presidency announced that the daily allowance has been raised to $197, from $144, for 144 developing countries. The allowance covers two or three delegates per country, and 374 delegates in total.
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People work at ENPARALELO, a local development project dedicated to growing microgreens in Havana, Cuba. REUTERS/Norlys Perez |
An innovative climate food solution has sprung up in Cuba's capital Havana as a unique start-up is shipping small containers of sprouting vegetable seedlings to upscale restaurants in other parts of the city. The start-up will supply seeds and other items such as coco fiber mesh, used instead of soil, to grow the microgreens, explained architect Oliesky Fabre, the founder of Enparalelo (Parallel Roads). The new home-based urban growers can then sell their microgreens back to the company, but also to neighbors, and keep some for their own consumption, he said. The project was one of 10 projects, out of 200 initiatives, deemed to have the most innovative solutions to combat hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean which won it a 2022 UN World Food Programme award. |
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Sustainable Switch was edited by Susan Fenton. |
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