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May 10, 2026
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Google Misstates Carbon Emissions of Proposed UK Datacentres

AI Summary
Google developers have significantly misstated the carbon emissions of two proposed AI datacentres in the UK, according to planning documents reviewed by the Guardian. The misstatements could have implications for the UK's climate goals.

The Misstated Emissions

Developers working for Google have significantly misstated how much carbon two proposed AI datacentres will contribute to the UK’s total emissions in planning documents reviewed by the Guardian.

The tech company wants to build two huge datacentres – one 52-hectare (130 acre) project in Thurrock and another at an airfield in North Weald, both in Essex. To do so, developers are required to submit planning documents calculating how much carbon these projects will emit as a proportion of the UK’s total carbon footprint.

The Calculation Error

In both cases, they appear to have compared one year of the proposed datacentre’s emissions with the UK’s entire five-year carbon budget, understating the significance of their emissions by a factor of five, according to experts at the tech justice nonprofit Foxglove.

  • Google's Thurrock datacentre claimed its emissions would amount to 0.033% of the UK’s budgeted carbon footprint between 2028 and 2032, but it will actually be 0.165% of the total.
  • The North Weald datacentre said it would emit 0.043% of the UK’s total carbon budget from 2033 to 2037, but it will actually emit 0.215% of the total.

The Impact Analysis

These apparent misstatements are another example of a pile-up of faulty calculations surrounding AI development and its environmental footprint in the UK. The three developments will account for more than 1% of the UK’s carbon budget in 2033, equivalent to the emissions of a mid-sized city such as Bristol.

The Prediction

“Google has serious questions to answer about its dubious datacentre pollution figures,” said Tim Squirrell, the head of strategy for Foxglove. “Unless they can explain themselves, it looks like they are seriously misleading the council and the public over the climate pollution their facility will cause.”