Carbon Emissions and Water: Data Centres
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what plans he has to monitor the (a) carbon emissions and (b) water usage of data centres.
Answered by Kerry McCarthy
(a) Emissions from data centres that occur in the UK - either directly at their locations or at power stations from their electricity use - are included in our published UK territorial greenhouse gas emissions totals, but cannot be attributed to specific data centres.
Data centres that are part of a quoted company, large unquoted company or large limited liability partnership are required to report on their emissions in their annual reports to comply with Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) policy.
(b) Water usage and its monitoring is overseen by the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs.
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