EU accused of hiding environmental impact of data centers

Mediapart

Lean Left

Factuality

Ownership

Neither the French administration nor the European Commission comply with their obligations to inform the public about the environmental impacts and energy consumption of data centers. This is revealed by an investigation by the international consortium of journalists Lighthouse Reports and "Mediapart".

NOS

Lean Right

Factuality

Ownership

By far the majority of data centers keep information about their environmental impact secret, reports Trouw. They are legally obliged to report on this, but many companies do not. At other companies, important data regarding water and electricity usage is missing. Data centers have become increasingly important in recent years. Everything placed in the cloud is stored there, from photos and documents to software. Especially now that AI applicat…

Solomon

Factuality

Ownership

The EU promises transparency on data centers, but keeps energy and water consumption data secret. After a year of research and data access requests across all 27 member states, we reveal how this secrecy regime was shaped — and an unprecedented legal challenge to it.