Biofuel Watch Webinar on AI Data Centres in the UK

Thank you very much for joining us for Thursday’s webinar about the environmental impacts of AI data centres and huge thanks to our fantastic speakers, Jill McArdle from Beyond Fossil Fuels, Mary Stevens from Friends of the Earth, Oliver Hayes from Global Action Plan and Merry Dickinson from Stop Burning Trees.

You can see a recording of the webinar here and these are the slides about Drax’s funding application to use its tree burning to power an AI data centre in Yorkshire.

You can see Jill’s slides here about data centre growth in Europe and the energy transition.

You can find links that were shared during the webinar and ways we can take action to stop Drax’s tree burning below.

Useful links

'Within Bounds: Limiting AI’s Environmental Impact' - Joint Statement for the AI Action Summit, signed by over 130 civil society organisations to call for AI systems to be made compatible with our planetary boundaries: (March 2025) https://greenscreen.network/en/blog/within-bounds-limiting-ai-environmental-impact/

‘Why the UK needs a new law to put the planet over profit’ - | Friends of the Earth: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/nature/why-uk-needs-new-law-put-planet-over-profit

The future of Drax: old, inefficient, damaging and expensive | Friends of the Earth Policy and insight: https://policy.friendsoftheearth.uk/insight/future-drax-old-inefficient-damaging-and-expensive

Harnessing AI for environmental justice | Friends of the Earth Policy and insight: https://policy.friendsoftheearth.uk/reports/harnessing-ai-environmental-justice

The hidden values shaping AI development - and what to do about them | Friends of the Earth Experiments: https://experiments.friendsoftheearth.uk/blog/hidden-values-shaping-ai-development-and-what-do-about-them

Royal Academy of Engineering report: UK Government urged to promote, prioritise and invest in sustainable AI to become global leader in AI frugality and efficiency

Gov Digital Sustainability Alliance: Government Digital Sustainability Alliance (GDSA) - GOV.UK

Map where Global Action Plan hopes to detail all planned hyperscale data centres and give people the opportunity to link up with others campaigning in their area: https://www.globalactionplan.org.uk/online-climate/climate-vs-big-tech/data-centres

‘The AI threats to climate change’ paper from March ‘24: https://caad.info/analysis/reports/the-ai-threats-to-climate-change/

How to take action

• Please sign and share the petition to oppose an new AI data centre powered by Drax: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/say-no-to-new-ai-data-centre-powered-by-drax
• Please call on your MP to speak out against new funding for Drax’s tree burning: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/urgent-please-ask-your-mp-to-speak-out-against-new-funding-for-draxs-tree-burning/
• Please ask your MP to back a new law to protect forests - Friends of the Earth: https://action.friendsoftheearth.uk/target/tell-your-mp-protect-forests-and-people-un-climate-talks
• Please support the Global Action Plan Crowdjustice fundraiser to cover the legal costs of taking the govt to court over forcing through data centre in Woodlands Park in Buckinghamshire: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/datacentre-challenge/

How to support Biofuelwatch, Beyond Fossil Fuels, Friends of the Earth, Global Action Plan and Stop Burning Trees

• Biofuel watch: https://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/ / https://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/get-updates/
• Beyond Fossil Fuels; https://beyondfossilfuels.org/
• Friends of the Earth: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/
• Global Action Plan: https://www.globalactionplan.org.uk/
• Stop Burning Trees: https://stopburningtrees.org/
• Join the Stop Burning Trees Coalition whatsapp announcements chat: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HtcWxgwOhrWJvBjWaOQ61V