The new label is optional for smaller data centers, “but later on we will also introduce minimum performance standards which will of course put more pressure on those who do not voluntarily wish to be as sustainable as we want,” he added. While Australia and Singapore already have schemes that rate the energy efficiency of data centres, the Commission’s new label would be the most comprehensive globally: it would ask technology companies to be transparent not only about their energy use but also about their impact on the local and global environment through information on how much water they consume, how clean their electricity is, whether they reuse the heat they generate and more. The EU executive performance standards, which the Commission wants to present in spring 2027, are expected to tighten the screws by setting mandatory sustainability thresholds for newly built or modernized data centers. Those two initiatives are an attempt to ensure that the European Union can compete in the artificial intelligence race without sacrificing its commitment to climate neutrality in 2050, Jørgensen said. “We need to address this so that data centers in the future are not something that damages our energy systems and therefore our competitiveness and abilities to decarbonize and ensure that we have security of supply for our citizens,” he said. “If we don’t ensure that these big energy consumers are actually in line with our overall goals… then they risk undermining our ability to live up to our own goals,” Jørgensen warned. Data centers are already absorbing 2.5% of the block’s electricity use, a proportion that is expected to double in the coming years, he noted. “We are facing a big change.”
