26/11/2025
As announced by the UK Government on 16th September 2025, Blyth and North Tyneside are set to become “Ai growth zones”, with Cobalt Park in North Tyneside set to become a hub for OpenAI (ChatGPT), Nvidia (US chipmaker) and Nscale (British technology), and Blyth set to become the home of a new £10billion Ai data centre.
Ai Data Centres are catastrophic for our environment, using almost 10-times the amount of electricity as a normal data centre. A paper published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2024 found that a single Ai Query relies on 2.9 watt-hours of electricity compared to 0.3 watt-hours for a regular internet search. This also leads to higher volumes of electronic waste which includes hazardous substances like mercury and lead.
Ai data centres also drain the local water supply. According to Greenpeace, “data centres worldwide consumed 175 billion litres of water in 2023” and “water consumption is forecast to more than triple by 2030”. The UNEP also estimates that “the global demand for water resulting from AI may reach 4.2–6.6 billion cubic metres in 2027” - which is more than half of the UK’s annual water usage. Another study notes that a single tech company’s data centres directly withdrew 29 billion liters and consumed (evaporated) more than 23 billion liters of freshwater for on-site cooling in 2023.
The Climate Change Act (2008) set a goal for the UK to reach Net Zero by 2050, with additional promises of a 68% reduction in Carbon Emissions by 2030 under the Paris Agreement. Should the proposed development of Ai Data Centres go ahead across the UK, these goals will no longer be achievable.
According to researchers at Harvard and UCLA, in 2023 Ai data centers produced at least 106 million metric tons of emissions — rivaling those of the domestic commercial airline industry. One study concluded that training an LLM (large language model) generates 300,000 kg of CO2 emissions - which is five times the lifetime emissions of the average car. These emissions are only expected to grow, with The Guardian reporting that the emissions of big tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple is likely to be 662% (7.62 times) “higher than officially reported”. Research by the Öko-Institut in Germany predicts that by 2030, CO2 emissions from AI datacentres will be six times the 2023 level - with other reports claiming it will be eleven times higher. Even Microsoft has admitted that its total emissions had risen by 23% due to factors including AI expansion (only five years after it committed to becoming zero carbon by 2030).
Another article published by The Guardian furthers the threats of Ai Data Centres on the UK’s environmental health, reporting that the Elsham datacentre in Lincolnshire is projected to release five times the amount of CO2 emissions as Birmingham airport. According to Greenpeace, Ai data centres in Ireland “already account for more than 20% of total national electricity consumption” with the figure reaching nearly 80% in Dublin.
“How will this directly impact me?” you may ask. Ai Data Centres heavily rely on fossil fuels to generate the levels of electricity required. Fossil fuels contribute to climate change and can cause respiratory illness, produce cancer-causing particulate matter, contribute to smog and acid rain, and pollute waterways. Air pollution from fossil fuels has been found to kill 1 in 5 people globally, according to a 2021 study from scientists at Harvard University and U.K. institutions. The Independent also highlighted that air pollution emitted from centers in the U.S. could result in “as many as 1,300 early deaths each year by 2030”. These figures will only continue to grow with the expansion of Ai Data Centres.
“What can I do” - together we can spread the word and urge our leaders to stop the development of Ai. Email your local MP, our mayors, councillors, and government ministers (ie: Ed Miliband - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero) to urge them to stop the development of Ai centres in the North East and across the UK. Highlight the threats of Ai on the environment, send them articles and use the figures quoted on this page.
