Some supporters of the green transition believe heavy industry can be replaced by cleaner, high-tech sectors. But a new report warns that this shift could create environmental and strategic problems of its own.
The Shift Project, a decarbonisation think tank, has urged the European Union to consider the energy demands of its drive to expand artificial intelligence capacity amid growing global competition. Although the technology sector is often portrayed as “weightless” or “post-material,” data centres require vast amounts of energy—and AI is expected to become a major consumer of electricity.
The group warns that the EU’s planned Cloud and AI Development Act (CAIDA), intended to strengthen Europe’s technological independence, could instead increase its reliance on imported fossil fuels. These could come from major suppliers such as Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States, as well as Iran, Iraq and Kuwait—countries “whose strategic interests do not necessarily align with those of the European Union,” according to The Shift Project’s Maxime Kiener.
Without proper planning and regulation, Kiener argues, Europe’s effort to build its own cloud and AI infrastructure could lead to higher fossil-fuel consumption and greater dependence on foreign energy.
The think tank has therefore proposed several safeguards. It wants data centres to use electricity that is no more carbon-intensive than the local power grid and calls for rules preventing operators from concealing their true consumption through off-grid fossil-fuel generators.
It also recommends including AI and cloud expansion in energy planning across the bloc, with access to scarce low-carbon electricity prioritised according to a project’s public value. Public funding should also depend on data-centre operators disclosing their energy consumption and efficiency.
The proposals are largely regulatory. By contrast, Chinese start-up Moonshot AI recently secured funding that could help its Kimi K2 AI agent become a major competitor in the global market.
The European Commission has yet to present a planned sustainability rating scheme for data centres that is expected to form part of CAIDA.
