Environmental Audit Committee

1 July 2026

Environmental Audit Committee House of Commons

00:05 - 00:36
Speaker 2
Order, order.  Well, welcome everybody to the latest meeting of the Environmental Audit Committee and part of our, the second panel event that we have looking into our study on data centres.  I'm very glad to say that we have an excellent panel in front of us.  If I could ask the three of you, starting with you, Mr. Eaton, on my left, just to introduce yourselves, your organisation, and your involvement in the issue of data centres.  So, start with you, please. 
00:36 - 01:17
Speaker 11
Yes, thank you, Mr. Perkins, for the introduction.  So, yes, Adam Eaton, I'm the CEO of VIRTUS Data Centres.  We operate 13 sites across the UK, delivering close to 225 megawatts of installed IT capacity, which makes us the largest data centre operator in the UK, and we contribute about 23% of the UK's installed IT.  So, as CEO of VIRTUS, my responsibility is to ensure we are leading with sustainability initiatives, environmental initiatives, and where we build and develop our data centres is in the right place for planning, permitting, and delivering along the environmental aspect.  Thank you. 
01:17 - 01:32
Speaker 1
I'm Tone Langengen.  I'm a senior policy advisor at the Tony Blair Institute, where I lead on energy policy, and we've spent a lot of time looking at the policy for the interactions between AI and energy.  Thank you. 
01:32 - 01:55
Speaker 4
Hello, my name is Arka Chanda.  I'm an associate at the Centre for Economic Transition Expertise at the London School of Economics, and we've, we're looking at the impacts of transformative changes throughout the economy, including climate change and the environment, and we've recently done some work on the implications of data centre deployment for the UK's climate goals. 

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