Climate change: China’s NDRC outlines peak-emissions strategy for data centres, 5G networks to support net-zero goals
- China will relocate non real-time data centres from eastern to Western regions to utilise abundant supply of wind and solar energy there
- Plan comes with a warning to local governments to prevent unchecked developments and detrimental practices in land, finance and tax matters
China has outlined its strategy to contain emissions in “digital infrastructure” involving data centres and high-speed (5G) telecommunications networks, setting key targets towards its 2060 carbon-neutrality goal.
The government will optimise the construction layout of data centres and 5G networks to boost its carbon-reduction initiatives, and has warned local authorities to prevent unchecked developments, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said.
“Data centres and 5G are strategic resources and public infrastructure that support the future economic and social development, while they are also the most crucial part that matters to the new infrastructure’s energy conservation and consumption reduction,” the top economic planner said in a statement with three state agencies late Wednesday.
China announced in September last year a target to reach peak-emissions by 2030 and net-zero by 2060. The nation’s carbon-intensive sectors such as steel, non-ferrous metal, and cement manufacturing, are expected to reach the first goal by around 2025.
As part of the latest focus on data centres, the NDRC said data centres currently located in the eastern regions with non real-time tasks would be relocated to new clusters in the Western regions to capitalise on the abundant supply of wind and solar resources.
Local governments should not grant preferential treatment in land, finances and tax matters related to data centres built outside the national data-centre clusters, according to the plan.
China’s push in digital infrastructure developments has worsened carbon emissions along the way. They are projected to reach 310 million tonnes by 2035 versus 123 million in 2020, according to environmental activist group Greenpeace. This will continue to rise even after other critical sectors achieved their peak-emission timeline.
China is home to the world’s largest 5G network and the world’s second biggest data-centre industry after the US. Building the new digital infrastructure that includes 5G networks, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain has become a top priority for China since the Covid-19 outbreak, boosting employment and economic growth.
Data centres and 5G networks consumed 201 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity in 2020, roughly equivalent to the combined consumption in the cities of Beijing and Shenzhen, according to Greenpeace.
This is expected to reach 782 billion kWh by 2035, or about 5 to 7 per cent of national power consumption, compared to 2.7 per cent in 2020, according to a forecast by Greenpeace East Asia.
Like most power-hungry industries, China’s digital infrastructure sector also relied heavily on “dirty” power plants. The country relied on coal to generate about 57 per cent of its electricity output in 2020, official data showed. About 61 per cent of the electricity that powered China’s digital infrastructure was from coal-fired plants, Greenpeace said.
“Digital infrastructure is a rapidly growing sector in China, and shifting the industry away from coal is critical to its national climate goals,” said Wu Xueying, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia.
The NDRC said the government will also work on relevant technologies to develop more power-efficient data centres. The average power usage effectiveness (PUE) of new large and mega-sized data centres should be reduced to below 1.3 by 2025, according to the plan. A ratio of 1 would be regarded as ideal in the industry.
The overall utilisation rate of data centres between the eastern and Western regions should also be more balanced, it added. The Western regions should boost its share from 30 per cent to more than 50 per cent by 2025 as more data centres are shifted from the eastern side.
Some tech companies have taken steps to reduce their carbon footprint. GDS Holdings, which hosts some of the largest cloud services operators including Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, aimed to fully rely on renewable energy and achieve carbon-neutrality by 2030.
Chindata and AtHub, two of the biggest major Chinese data-centre operators, have also committed to achieve 100 per cent clean-energy by 2030.
“Policymakers can help enable this transition by mandating the use of 100 per cent renewable energy and providing financial incentives for companies to shift to wind and solar,” said Ye Ruiqi, a climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia. “Digital technology should be a solution to the climate crisis, not a growing source of emissions.”