The Jackson School of Global Affairs Academic Workshop Series presents
Nicole Wong, Zoey Duan, Ethan Hsu, and Chi Nguyen - Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, Yale School of Management, and Yale College:
“Environmental and Social Inequities in Global Data Centre.”
The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has spurred an unprecedented global growth in data centre construction, cementing these facilities as critical infrastructure for the digital age. Data centres, the backbone of AI, cloud computing, and digital economies, have become a focal point of geopolitical competition. The global “data centre arms race” reflects not only a pursuit of technological superiority but also a strategic bid for digital sovereignty and control over data flows. However, the rapid pace of data centre construction often overlooks the considerable environmental costs, including high energy consumption, water usage, land requirements, and carbon emissions. These challenges are particularly acute in regions with limited resources or inadequate regulatory frameworks to mitigate the impacts.
While the US currently leads in data center capacity, this race occurs beyond the Global North as well. This project undertakes regional analyses of the data centre industry in the Global South, to provide a comprehensive understanding of its environmental footprint and the uneven distribution of its benefits and burdens. A particular focus is placed on energy consumption, exploring both the direct demands of powering data centres and the indirect consequences for local energy grids, sustainability goals, and climate commitments. The research addresses the disproportionate impact of data centre growth on countries in the Global South, where existing inequalities in global resource distribution and infrastructure gaps may exacerbate the strain on natural resources and communities, raising urgent questions about equitable development and sustainability in the digital era.