Telecity : roup welcomes launch of Climate Change Agreement for UK data centre industry

TelecityGroup, Europe's industry-leading provider of premium carrier-neutral data centres, welcomes the formal introduction of a Climate Change Agreement for the UK data centre industry. The Climate Change Agreement (CCA), in force as of 1st July 2014, recognises the data centre industry as a vital element in the overall UK economy, and will encourage the adoption of technologies that increase energy efficiency and reduce the industry's environmental impact.

A CCA is a negotiated arrangement between government and specific sectors, where in return for a reduction in some carbon taxes participants must meet set energy efficiency targets. The CCA for the UK data centre industry comes after a sustained campaign, led by organisations including techUK and TelecityGroup, to ask government to apply a more intelligent approach to improving energy efficiency without penalising growth in a globally important sector.

Rob Coupland, Managing Director of TelecityGroup UK, has been heavily involved in the development of the CCA for the data centre industry from the start, as a member of the Data Centre Council at techUK.

Coupland comments: "At TelecityGroup we are delighted with the success of the initiative and we thank techUK for three years of hard campaigning with us. The CCA will be of great benefit to the industry and to our customers, and is firm recognition of the critical role the sector plays in the UK economy. The CCA will give operators and investors greater certainty regarding the way that policy instruments are applied to the sector and this should lead to better confidence when planning investment strategies and expansion programmes which can deliver carbon reductions whilst encouraging growth."

Emma Fryer, Associate Director of Climate Change Programmes at techUK comments: "The first data centre CCA is an extremely important development for the industry, as well as for the wider UK economy. In contrast to other EU countries, the UK had been slow to recognise the importance of a thriving data centre industry to a country's economic health but that has all changed now and we're delighted to have the CCA. We would like to thank TelecityGroup for its leading role in helping us reach this landmark agreement, and start a new era for the data centre industry in the UK."