Shifting from self-regulation to providing expert insight to inform future EU Climate Goals & Metrics
11 June 2025, Brussels. The Climate Neutral Data Center Pact (the Pact) today announces a shift from self-regulation to providing industry insight to aid compliance with existing regulations and help shape future environmental goals and metrics. The Pact’s new governance, agreed in collaboration with the European Commission, recognises that as mandatory reporting is introduced there is no longer a need for duplicative, self-audits on key climate sustainability measures. Instead, Pact members will demonstrate their commitment to the Pact’s goals using reports required under the Energy Efficiency Directive and other relevant regulations.
Since 2021, the Pact has played a central role in defining goals and metrics for sustainable power consumption, energy and water efficiency and circular economy measures for data centers. Over one hundred data center operators and 29 trade associations have joined the Pact, which has influenced existing and planned European regulations. The Pact is widely recognised across all the European institutions for providing workable and effective sustainability measures and targets.
The Pact will continue to be a force for progress towards climate neutrality in the essential data center sector. From now on, it will partner with the Commission to provide consistent, informed and data-evidenced views that help to establish effective targets, measures and procedures to maintain and advance the data center sector’s leadership in delivering a green and digital economy for Europe.
The Pact’s Working Groups represent unique fora for discussion of technical, data-centric and operational aspects of delivering climate neutral data centers. By providing data, insights and expertise to regulators, the Pact can inform, test, develop and help implement effective environmental measures for the sector. For example, the Pact is already working intensively to provide constructive feedback and insights to help create an effective rating scheme for data center sustainability.
Matt Pullen, Chair of the Climate Neutral Data Center Pact’s Board, said: “The era of self-regulation has passed. Rather than duplicate reporting, the Pact will now focus its knowledge, insight and experience on assisting regulators in setting and measuring effective targets that quickly move the sector to climate neutral operations.”
Pact members will, from 2025, no longer be required to conduct specific audits against Pact goals. They will, however, be expected to commit to the Pact Initiative that outlines specific climate neutral targets for 2030. Progress towards these goals can be monitored through data and reporting now required by European and national regulations.
