C40 cities launch pact for sustainable urban data centres

C40 Cities has launched the Global Urban Data Centres Pact at London Climate Action Week, with mayors from 40 cities backing cooperation on cleaner and more resource-efficient data centre development. The pact is intended to guide permitting, planning decisions and negotiations with companies and governments. It matters because AI-driven infrastructure demand is making power, water, land use and public acceptance more visible at city level.

• Mayors from 40 cities back planning rules on power and water

• The pact turns AI infrastructure pressure into a city governance issue

The fact

C40 Cities is launching the Global Urban Data Centres Pact at London Climate Action Week, with mayors from 40 cities agreeing to cooperate on reducing the sector's impact on power, water, land use and local communities. Signatories include cities such as London, Mumbai, Melbourne and Nairobi. The framework is intended to guide permitting, planning decisions and negotiations with companies and governments, while adapting rules to local conditions.

The Assessment

The pact shows that data centre sustainability is moving from corporate ESG into local infrastructure governance. AI demand is accelerating construction, but public resistance is rising where power, water and land constraints are visible. For operators, city-level approval will increasingly hinge on energy efficiency, water use and community integration. For internet infrastructure, it means data centre siting is no longer just a commercial decision but a city governance one — the layer where cloud operators meet urban politics matters more as AI workloads multiply.

What to Watch

Watch whether participating cities convert the pact into binding permitting rules, grid-connection conditions, water-use limits or community benefit requirements for new data centre projects.