techUK has warned that data centres, now classed as critical national infrastructure, must increase resilience to climate change risks including heatwaves, flooding and power outages.

In September 2024, the UK government announced that data centres would be designated critical national infrastructure (CNI). This means that data centres, due to the role they play in national economic prosperity, security and resilience, will be given protections to make them harder to compromise during outages, cyber attacks and adverse weather events.

However, with climate change causing more frequent and extreme weather conditions, trade body techUK has published a new report, Future-Proofing Digital Infrastructure: Climate Resilience in the Data Centre Sector.

The report explores the many climate risks associated with UK data centre sites, strategies to ensure their long-term resilience, key barriers to adaptation and recommendations for policymakers.

In the report’s foreword, Matthew Evans, chief operating...