2026-03-02
Australia's data centre industry emitted more than 2 million tonnes of greenhouse gases as part of their operations in 2024-25, according to the latest annual emissions data released on Friday.
The fast-growing sector has seen its emissions increase by more than 50% in the last 5 years, and a pipeline of increasingly enormous projects all but guarantees that number to explode over the next few years.
The NSW Department of Climate Change Energy Environment and Water has confirmed they have formally warned the NSW Minister for Climate Change, Penny Sharpe, that the rate of data centre developments could jeopardise NSW legislated emissions reduction targets.
The most polluting data centre companies are:
- Airtrunk - 4,165 t CO2-e Scope 1, and 553,344 t CO2-e Scope 2, for a total 557,509 t CO2-e
- Amazon - 1,007 t CO2-e Scope 1, and 405,217 t CO2-e Scope 2, for a total 406,224 t CO2-e
- NextDC - 7,919 t CO2-e Scope 1, and 358,353 t CO2-e Scope 2, for a total 366,272 t CO2-e
- CDC - 215 t CO2-e Scope 1, and 317,465 t CO2-e Scope 2, for a total 317,680 t CO2-e
- Equinix - 1,869 t CO2-e Scope 1, and 288,374 t CO2-e Scope 2, for a total 290,243 t CO2-e
- HMC Digital Infrastructure (DigiCo) - 539 t CO2-e Scope 1, and 77,446 t CO2-e Scope 2, for a total 77,985 t CO2-e
- Fujitsu - 1,653 t CO2-e Scope 1, and 55,228 t CO2-e Scope 2, for a total 56,881 t CO2-e
Quotes attributable to Abigail Boyd, Greens NSW Spokesperson for Energy and Spokesperson for Industry, Jobs and Trade:
"This explosion in climate-cooking emissions coming from the AI-fuelled data centre industry is horrifying, particularly when you consider that rather than winding this sector down we've got governments at state and federal level putting their foot on the accelerator.
"In just the last few years, data centres have become big business, and with them come big energy and water demands. The latest estimates predict data centres will take up to 25% of Sydney's drinking water supply, and consume 11% of all energy produced. Around the world they have driven up power prices, stalled housing development and destroyed communities through noise and heat effects.
"The NSW Government is encouraging more and more new data centre developments, and offering them fast-tracked planning assessments, without any plan to mitigate the social and environmental impacts.
"The biggest emitters, like Airtrunk, are responsible for emissions in line with Ausgrid and Sydney Trains, while Amazon, NextDC, and CDC outstrip the emission intensity of Sydney Water and Endeavour Energy.
"When emissions from AI slop factories exceed the emissions produced from essential social infrastructure like energy and water, you know something is going badly wrong."