2013 EMEA Forum – European Policy Impact on Data Centres

16 October, 2013 | Presentation

Sylvie Feindt, DIGITALEUROPE
Emma Fryer, Intellect


This session explores the impact of European carbon and energy efficiency legislation on Data Centres. The presentation starts with a quick overview of European policy priorities on climate change and outlines the main legislative instruments and other policy tools already being deployed or in the pipeline. The presentation identifies how the legislation is affecting the data centre sector, particularly with regard to strategic planning and investment decisions and whether it is driving behavioural change at the operational level. The presentation refers to the UK to illustrate how legislation can lead to unintended consequences when applied to data centres, why some measures will never deliver their policy objectives, and how industry might address this disconnect between policy intention and policy outcome. Discussion also includes how carbon constraints and higher energy prices may affect the way that the European sector develops in the future.