The Malaysian State of Johor has rejected almost 30 per cent of applications to build data centres to ensure the conservation of local resources and regulate one of the largest markets in Southeast Asia.
Last June, Johor set up an ad hoc committee to vet applications to build data processing centres that house the IT infrastructure for storing information of large companies, crucial for developing artificial intelligence, which will further boost energy demand.
Several studies have found that such facilities are highly polluting. One in Europe found that over 20 years, data centres in the continent produced between 6,600 and 10,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide per megawatt of operating IT, equal to the annual electricity consumption of 1,700 to 2,800 European households.