[Tech Thoughts] Environmental issues amid rising knowledge heart demand in ‘too sizzling’ PH

MANILA, Philippines – Do a daily Google search on AI applied sciences and their environmental influence. To say the least, the outcomes are worrisome. 

Now, do the same question on ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or different chatbots. You’d have gotten the same set of solutions — solely this time, you’ve used not less than 5 instances extra energy than a daily search. 

In June, a United Nations report discovered that 4 Large Tech companies (Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta) noticed their oblique carbon emissions rise by 150% from 2020 to 2023 as their AI operations expanded.

To develop, that meant constructing extra knowledge facilities — bodily services housing computer systems and servers that retailer, course of, and transmit knowledge. 

Information facilities are set to extend, not lower, within the coming years. 

The Worldwide Power Company, in an April 2025 report, estimated that “electrical energy demand from knowledge facilities worldwide is about to greater than double” by 2030, with AI being recognized as probably the most vital driver. 

And in the US, the place new knowledge facilities are aggressively being constructed, communities are already being impacted: water provide is disrupted, and electrical energy prices develop as new knowledge facilities rise.

Within the Philippines, there’s a rising push for the nation to construct extra knowledge facilities, as the federal government pursues its digital transformation targets. 

We’re for digital transformation, however given how we’ve seen the power-hungry nature of knowledge facilities, it’s vital that earlier than the supposed knowledge heart “increase” comes, sustainability and the impact on communities are given probably the most critical consideration immediately. 

Already, our local weather targets are a multitude, and the constructing of those knowledge facilities — left to their very own gadgets — could develop into extra a part of the issue than an answer to progress.

At the moment, there are 35 knowledge facilities within the Philippines, in accordance with datacentermap.com. 

And right here is a vital proven fact that compounds what could possibly be a giant downside if we construct knowledge facilities with out due issues: it’s sizzling within the Philippines. 

A Remainder of World (RoW) report in November 2025 discovered that the Philippines is among the many 21 international locations that function knowledge facilities in some areas the place the common annual temperature is above 27°C.

The optimum vary is from 18°C to 27°C.

The RoW report highlights Singapore — Southeast Asia’s “digital core” the place 72 knowledge facilities are positioned — and quotes PS Lee who leads the Sustainable Tropical Information Middle Testbed: “In thermal phrases, Singapore is nearly ‘everlasting peak summer time’ for an information heart…. Cooling is each technically tougher and structurally extra energy-intensive right here than in most different knowledge heart hubs.” 

It’s a problem that Singapore, by means of the academia and personal companies, is now at the moment attempting to resolve, with the federal government having already mandated decreased water and power consumption for knowledge facilities, RoW mentioned. 

Lee, noting that different international locations even have the same local weather profile, hopes that advances by the Testbed could also be adopted as nicely by others sooner or later. “Lots of the world’s fastest-growing digital economies — akin to Jakarta, Manila, Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, and Mumbai — share related sizzling and humid situations,” Lee mentioned. 

How can the info heart increase be made sustainable?

BusinessWorld reported in October that Division of Data and Communications Know-how (DICT) Secretary Henry Aguda is trying to attain 1.5 gigawatts in whole knowledge heart output by 2028. 

At the moment, the nation’s output is at round 200 megawatts. Regional chief Singapore has a capability of 1.4 gigawatts, adopted by Malaysia and Indonesia, each beneath 1,000 megawatts.  

Aguda mentioned the DICT needs to advertise the Philippines as an information heart hub, and plans to spherical up investments from the US, amid rising international demand. 

The environmental influence of knowledge facilities once more made headlines within the US simply days in the past when its Congress reformed its 1969 Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act — which pushes for sooner allowing for constructing knowledge facilities, on the expense of complete environmental critiques.

Days earlier than that, greater than 200 environmental teams had been protesting, and demanding a halt to new US knowledge facilities, citing the aforementioned water scarcity and electrical energy price points.

In gentle of all this, how should the Philippines act? We’re a far, far cry from the info heart capability of the US at the moment rated at greater than 53 gigawatts. 

However we’re additionally at a tipping level for knowledge heart growth. 

So earlier than that occurs, we ask: what environmental insurance policies do we now have in place that may make this growth — this digital transformation, and these financial efforts to seize demand — sustainable? 

The UN’s knowledge heart sustainability procurement pointers launched again in June are a begin. Other than Singapore, the European Union — by way of the Power Effectivity Directive — additionally began mandating in 2024 that knowledge facilities above 500 kilowatts report their energy use with very particular metrics.

And inexperienced efforts can be a sensible enterprise determination too. 

Because the ASEAN Briefing notes: “Environmental sustainability is one other essential challenge [in attracting data center investments]. ESG-compliant (Environmental, Social, and Governance) designs, energy-efficient cooling programs, and integration with renewable power sources have gotten baseline necessities from worldwide shoppers and enterprise prospects. Builders who fail to satisfy these expectations could battle to draw long-term tenants.” 

However we additionally know that within the Philippines, environmental issues can usually play fourth or fifth fiddle to revenue, “development,” or private achieve. 

We all know these knowledge facilities are coming, so it’s key that we maintain a detailed eye on communities that could be affected when they’re constructed — contemplating too that electrical energy and water provide proceed to be nagging issues in some areas within the nation. – Rappler.com