Climate Claims in Data Center Politics

Elected officials and city planners making data center policy can refer to the evidence when they encounter the claim. The 5-page PDF version can be printed and referred to during meetings. Policymakers should get familiar with the references in the annotated bibliography.

Climate, tech, land use, agriculture, labor organizers working on local justice can prepare for debates in advance for locally-relevant nuance. The 5-page PDF version can be printed and referred to during meetings. The Mobile version can be shared in socials during campaigns. Speakers should get familiar with the references in the annotated bibliography.

Covering tech, climate, local government can fact-check decision makers and provide evidence-based nuance in their reporting. They can use the annotated bibliography for authoritative evidence. See more information in the Press Release and the supplementary Notes to the Editor.

Working in media literacy, climate literacy, tech literacy. For youth to adults. Also scholars and academics in civil engineering, social science / political science. Each may benefit from knowing the claims and being ready to explain or share the nuances with others. The mobile version provides an entry point for educators to use as flash-cards. Academics can get involved with future work.

Investors, advisors, and strategic management specialists can use this information for risk assessment, asset valuation, and strategic planning of construction, land use, data storage planning, supply chain management, product design, and other regional or related concerns. The 5-page PDF version provides a quick reference for print or email, and the annotated bibliography can be of use for due diligence.

The purpose of this work is to provide nuance, including debunks, reasoning and fact checking on common climate claims in decision making and public discourse on data centers. Readers may read through the logic for each claim and nuance, provided with references. References have been selected for accuracy, authority, and precision. These references and the chains of reasoning presented constitute a snapshot in time of evidence and nuance. Some claims and nuance pairs – like the idea that water evaporates, then lands in places that put it out of our reach for drinking and farming – are stable over time. Others will evolve over time, like the fact that today we have no nuclear options that are carbon-free nor sufficiently deployable. Nuance is the key to being able to make policies that are fit to intended purposes. Simplifying claims into blanket statements makes them easier to pass into popular use than their nuanced counterparts, but the nuanced ideas work better.

The purpose of this document is to provide nuance, including debunks, reasoning and fact checking on common climate claims in decision making and public discourse on data centers. Readers may read through the logic for each claim and nuance, provided with references. References have been selected for accuracy, authority, and precision. Journalists, civil society organizers, researchers, policymakers, investors, and other interested parties can refer to this annotated bibliography or to the companion infographic. They are distributed under a CC BY-ND license. These references and the chains of reasoning presented constitute a snapshot in time of evidence and nuance. Some claims and nuance pairs – like the idea that water evaporates, then lands in places that put it out of our reach for drinking and farming – are stable over time. Others will evolve over time – like the fact that today we have no nuclear options that are carbon-free nor sufficiently deployable. Nuance is the key to being able to make policies that are fit to intended purposes. Simplifying claims into blanket statements makes them easier to pass into popular use than their nuanced counterparts, but the nuanced ideas work better.

The researchers collected claims about climate effects of data centers from the news, social media, and their work in communities. They then circulated the claims to specialists and in social media and engaged in an iterative process of refining and categorizing the list. The researchers then examined each claim for accuracy and completeness.  Claims were often found to be at least partially accurate, but incomplete, leading to misinformation and the potential to promote poor decisions. Evidence of completeness and accuracy were collected from scientific literature, major news media, and company reports. Sources were chosen for being primary or scholarly evidence of the nuances that can correct the initial misinformation. The findings were then summarized into statements for an infographic quick-reference and in an annotated bibliography for more in-depth evidence. The evidence is presented in full on the Social Science Research Network (Mackenzie et al., 2026).

Mackenzie, T., Rajachander, H., Braakman, W., Pelletier, F., Ham, A., and Radeljić, B. (2026). The Aula Fellowship AI Sustainability Council: Annotated Bibliography of Climate Claims in Data Center Politics. Social Science Research Network, August 11, 2026. Available at: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.7267179