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The Regional Climate Divide of Data Centers

  • Jens Gröger
    Research Coordinator for sustainable digital infrastructures / Senior Researcher Sustainable Products & Material Flows
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Climate_Divide_Data_Centers.pdf (PDF3,92 MB)

The study analyses global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from data centres and presents the findings at a regional level. According to the study, data centres worldwide consumed at least 485 TWh of electricity in 2025. More than half of this electricity consumption is accounted for by the USA, followed by China and Europe. Within Europe, the United Kingdom leads the rankings, followed by Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. In Germany, the Frankfurt metropolitan area dominates as by far the largest location for data centres, followed by Berlin and Munich. Using the CUE (Carbon Usage Effectiveness) metric, the study highlights which locations have particularly CO₂-intensive computing operations. It also introduces the RWUE (Radioactive Waste Usage Effectiveness) metric, which indicates how much high-level radioactive waste is generated per unit of computing power through the use of nuclear electricity.