The DCA - EU Regulation Update

Most of you will be aware that the European Parliament has passed some new legislation that is specifically focussed on data centres, this is as a result of the European Green Deal and their statement in Feb 2021 that “Data Centres & Telecommunications can and should be carbon neutral by 2030”.

There are 3 separate pieces that apply, these are as follows:

1. Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364 of 14 March 2024 on the first phase of the establishment of a common Union rating scheme for data centres.

C/2024/1639 This is in effect the reporting scheme and all data centres over 500kw need to report their 2023 data for total energy consumption, the percentage derived from renewable energy, water use and energy reuse by the 15^th September 2024, and the date for subsequent years by the 15^th May. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2024/1364/oj  

2. Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive  (CSRD)

This directive requires qualifying organisations to report various ESG initiatives this includes GHG emissions derived from 3^rd parties on their behalf, this means that data centres may be required to report their own emissions and provide information to their customers on their specific emissions within the data centre or cloud platform.

https://finance.ec.europa.eu/capital-markets-union-and-financial-markets/company-reporting-and-auditing/company-reporting/corporate-sustainability-reporting_en

3. Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act

This is focused on the construction and operation of data centres and is primarily if you are seeking green finance.

https://finance.ec.europa.eu/sustainable-finance/tools-and-standards/eu-taxonomy-sustainable-activities_en

More information is contained in the “Assessment Framework”

Assessment Framework for Data Centres in the Context of Activity 8.1 in the Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act

EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres (Energy Efficiency) 15^th Edition 2024.  All three pieces of regulation listed above are referenced on The EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres (Energy Efficiency) with the latest version.

published in March 2024, both the Assessment Framework and EUCOC can be downloaded from the following link https://e3p.jrc.ec.europa.eu/communities/data-centres-code-conduct

Please Note:  Although the United Kingdom is no longer part of the EU and therefore none of the above regulations technically apply in the UK , we are still very much part of Europe. Many of you trade internationally or have European customers so it is important that you become acquainted with these new regulations to assess the impact they might have on your own business or customers moving forward. 

As a recognised leading global data centre hub, it is vital that the United Kingdom remains both competitive and a desirable location for inward investment; The UK Government is keenly aware of this fact, therefore, it is only a matter of time before these new EU Regulations are likely to be either adopted or mirrored in the UK. The DCA Energy Efficiency Special interest group chaired by John Booth of Carbon3IT is working closely with the UK Government departments on what this adoption might look like and The DCA will update you when further information is available.