Did you know that the growing climate footprint of AI infrastructure, especially data centres in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, presents a unique paradox known as the “Green AI Paradox“? Data centres, pivotal for powering advanced AI applications, consume huge amounts of electricity and require significant cooling resources, contributing to increased carbon emissions. Countries like Singapore, Japan, and South Korea are leading efforts to power such facilities with renewable energy and deploy novel cooling technologies to reduce environmental impacts. These initiatives aim to balance the demand for AI capabilities with the urgent need for sustainability, making green data centres a focal point in APAC’s climate strategy.
How are APAC countries addressing the climate footprint of AI data centres?
- Singapore’s renewable push and innovative cooling: With limited land and a tropical climate, the road to data centre sustainability is challenging in Singapore. However, the country encourages green energy adoption, including solar power and explores seawater cooling and other cutting-edge technologies to reduce energy consumption. Incentives and frameworks encourage operators to achieve carbon neutrality while supporting the AI ecosystem.
- Japan’s commitment to clean energy and efficiency: Japan is harnessing its advanced technology sector to embed renewable energy sources such as hydro, wind, and solar into data centre operations. Efforts also concentrate on energy-efficient hardware and cooling solutions like liquid cooling to reduce emissions. The joint effort of government and industry aims to set standards for sustainable AI infrastructure.
- South Korea’s green certification and smart cooling systems: South Korea encourages green buildings certification for data centres, investing in smart cooling using AI-driven climate control systems. This reduces power usage while maintaining reliability for high-demand AI workloads. Renewable energy procurement targets complement these initiatives to foster a clean energy transition.
Why is balancing AI growth and climate goals critical in APAC?
The expanding digital economy, driven by AI, requires exponentially more data processing, making energy-efficient and clean data centres essential to avoid exacerbating climate change. Without sustainable solutions, increasing emissions from data centres could counteract the region’s climate commitments. Thus, the “Green AI Paradox” underscores the need for coordinated innovation, policy support, and private sector investment.
How can organisations and policymakers accelerate this transition?
- Invest in renewable power procurement and grid modernisation to increase green energy availability for data centres.
- Promote research and deployment of advanced cooling technologies that efficiently cut energy use.
- Implement regulations and incentives that align data centre development with national climate targets.
- Encourage public-private partnerships to share best practices for scaling sustainable AI infrastructure.
Strategy&Ops helps APAC stakeholders to navigate this complex green transition through advisory services focused on integrating renewables, deploying advanced cooling, and aligning AI infrastructure development with sustainability goals. Contact our multidisciplinary team at info@strategyandops.net to future-proof your AI investments.
#GreenAI #SustainableDataCenters #CleanEnergyAPAC #ClimateTech #AIForGood #AdvancedCooling
Refences
Lowy Institute (2025) Artificial intelligence and sustainability in the Asia-Pacific. Available at: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/artificial-intelligence-sustainability-asia-pacific Lowy Institute
PwC (2025) Closing the clean energy gap for Asia Pacific data centres. Available at: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/asia-pacific/pwc-asia-pacific-data-centres-clean-energy-gap-2025.pdf PwC
White & Case LLP (2025) The Asian perspective on the data centre landscape. Available at: https://www.whitecase.com/insight-alert/asian-perspective-data-centre-landscape
Data Centre Dynamics (2025) ‘AI and the green data centre paradox: can we really power progress sustainably?’, 10 January. Available at: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/opinions/ai-and-the-green-data-center-paradox-can-we-really-power-progress-sustainably/ Omdia (2025) DC APAC brief: The AI power paradox: Can data centres balance growth and sustainability? Analyst Opinion, 23 September. Available at: https://omdia.tech.informa.com/om139246/dcd-apac-brief-the-ai-power-paradox-can-data-centers-balance-growth-and-sustainability