22 April 2026, DCpedia, Marco Verzijl

Article: Transparency is not a threat to the data center industry, but a prerequisite for legitimacy

Investigate Europe's research exposes a painful reality: at the moment that Europe wanted to gain more insight into the environmental impact of data centers, a step towards secrecy was taken under pressure from the sector. Microsoft and DigitalEurope are said to have succeeded in getting a confidentiality provision in the European rules, which keeps data on the environmental impact of individual data centers out of public view. Lawyers even warn that this broad secrecy could be at odds with European transparency rules and the Aarhus Convention.