Singaporean Climate-Positive Initiatives
Singapore Has Stated that it Wants Efficient Data Centers
Colin Smith — January 17, 2022
As a part of the Singaporean climate initiative the nation began in 2020, the Singaporean minister for trade has announced in 2022 that the country will only allow highly resource-efficient data centers to be constructed. Through extensive research into the digital economy by the Singaporean government over the past three years, the country found that infrastructure tied to the digital economy is often largely inefficient. These corporations often place a larger importance on economic gain than environmental conservation, which the government is now cracking down on.
The 'Singapore Green Plan 2030' hopes to reduce the emissions of several sectors in the country through various means, such as implementing more sustainable energy sources, reducing landfill waste, and promoting efficient businesses. In February of 2021, the minister for trade and industry in Singapore enacted pauses on the availability of land for data centers, citing that many data centers held a capacity of more than 1,000 MW, which is a rapid increase from the 307 MW average in the early 2010s. This pause has now been lifted with the caveat that newly constructed data centers demonstrate resource efficiency and low energy waste, or the land will not be granted.
This initiative is a large step in the right direction towards the country's goal of carbon neutrality. If data centers in Singapore are able to adopt greater carbon efficiency, it is likely that other countries will follow suit.
