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Climate change: China’s NDRC outlines peak-emissions strategy for data centres, 5G networks to support net-zero goals
- China will relocate non real-time data centres from eastern to Western regions to utilise abundant supply of wind and solar energy there
- Plan comes with a warning to local governments to prevent unchecked developments and detrimental practices in land, finance and tax matters
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China has outlined its strategy to contain emissions in “digital infrastructure” involving data centres and high-speed (5G) telecommunications networks, setting key targets towards its 2060 carbon-neutrality goal.
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The government will optimise the construction layout of data centres and 5G networks to boost its carbon-reduction initiatives, and has warned local authorities to prevent unchecked developments, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said.
“Data centres and 5G are strategic resources and public infrastructure that support the future economic and social development, while they are also the most crucial part that matters to the new infrastructure’s energy conservation and consumption reduction,” the top economic planner said in a statement with three state agencies late Wednesday.
China announced in September last year a target to reach peak-emissions by 2030 and net-zero by 2060. The nation’s carbon-intensive sectors such as steel, non-ferrous metal, and cement manufacturing, are expected to reach the first goal by around 2025.
As part of the latest focus on data centres, the NDRC said data centres currently located in the eastern regions with non real-time tasks would be relocated to new clusters in the Western regions to capitalise on the abundant supply of wind and solar resources.
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