Cooling Systems Emissions from Data Centres

If the Internet was a country, it would be the sixth-largest electricity consumer on the planet, consuming up to 7% of the global electricity use. Over the last few years, the tech industry and their energy-hungry data centers have been responsible for large increases in climate emissions. Moreover, tech is investing trillions in artificial intelligence technologies that will demand still more energy.

Several thousand large-scale data centres exist worldwide, hosting around 67 million servers. High-GWP HFCs, such as R-134a and R-410A, are still widely used in the cooling and air conditioning equipment in data centres. The growth in the demand for HFCs may put the Montreal Protocol compliance of countries at risk and reverse the good progress already achieved in the mitigation of ozone-depleting and high-GWP refrigerants.

This event will enhance the Montreal Protocol community’s understanding on the issue, share information on sustainable cooling solutions for data centres and highlight available tools and resources to avoid the increase in demand for HFCs while improving energy efficiency across the data centres sector.

Agenda

• Welcome Remarks
  • Ms. Souhir Al-Hammami, Director of Scientific and Technical Information at the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR)  
  • Ms. Denise San Valentin, Programme Management Officer, CCAC Secretariat, UNEP
• Growing emissions from cooling systems in data centres and sustainable cooling technology solutions
  • Dr. Baolong Wang – Associate Professor at Tsinghua University, Vice Chair of IIR Commission E1 (Air conditioning ), and Chair of the IIR Working Group on Dehumidification in Air Conditioning
• Country Experiences in managing data centre emissions
  • Dr. Pattanan Tarin, Head of Ozone Protection Unit, Thailand
• Roundtable Discussion
  • Dr. Shazwin Binti, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Artificial Intelligence, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
  • Dr. Rajan Ranjendran, RTOC Co-Chair, TEAP
  • Mr. Kennedy Amankwa, Deputy Director, Energy Efficiency Regulation, Ghana Energy Commission
  • Ms. Miruza Mohamed, CCAC Co-Lead, Maldives
• Synthesis and “U4E Procurement Guideline for Sustainable Data Centers and Computer Servers”
  • Mr. Miquel Pitarch, International Expert Consultant, UNEP United4Efficiency