EU Unveils Plan to Ease Water Shortages and Curb Data Center Use

The European Union unveiled plans to boost resilience to droughts and improve water quality across the bloc, including measures to place usage checks on the booming IT sector.

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, will work on setting minimum performance standards to curb water use in data centers as the continent confronts potential shortages over the coming decades, according to its water resilience strategy unveiled on Wednesday. The overall objective is to boost water efficiency across the bloc by at least 10% by 2030.

“Every year 30% of Europe’s land faces water scarcity,” said Jessica Roswall, EU environment commissioner. ...