At a glance
The Antalya Pledge on AI, launched in New York on 21 September, covers how AI is powered, bought and measured, and a draft is due before COP31 opens on 9 November.
Türkiye's environment minister, who will preside over the summit, wants companies to disclose their energy use and run their operations on clean energy.
Australia, which leads the COP31 negotiations, has a law, a ministerial agreement or a proposed rule change matching each of those asks for data centres.
An energy report Australia and Türkiye requested for the summit says regulators are weighing grid-cost protections for very large loads, similar to the upfront security Chris Bowen sought in July.
Whether companies will be invited to sign, and whether Australia adopts the pledge, is still open.
COP31, this year's UN climate summit, runs in Antalya from 9 to 20 November. Its host, Türkiye, launched a political pledge on artificial intelligence on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on 21 September. A day later the International Energy Agency (IEA) published a special report on electrification that Australia and Türkiye had requested for the summit, and it includes a section on how hyperscale data centres are changing the way grids are planned.
Under a deal struck at last year's summit in Belém, Brazil, Türkiye chairs COP31 while Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen runs the negotiations between governments as President of Negotiations. At home, the government is partway through writing energy rules for data centres, which it intends to legislate in early 2027, so operators here will want to know whether a UN pledge adds anything to them.
Every ask published so far is already covered by Australian law or by measures in train. Energy-use reporting is law, energy ministers have agreed that data centres should offset their demand with new renewables, and the IEA report describes the kind of grid-cost protections Bowen asked the electricity rule maker, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC), to consider in July. The pledge text itself is due before the summit opens.
Türkiye asks for transparency and clean energy
The COP31 presidency describes the Antalya Pledge on AI as "a political pledge on how AI is designed, procured, powered, deployed, measured and managed in support of climate and sustainable development objectives". It is being drafted with the International Telecommunication Union, the UN's agency for digital technology, and Reuters reported that countries would adopt it to align their AI infrastructure build-out with global climate goals.
Murat Kurum, Türkiye's environment minister and the incoming COP31 president, set out two expectations at the launch: "We expect companies to be transparent about their energy use and to power their operations with clean energy." He also said "it is time for governments to start setting the terms." Eco-Business reported that the discussions would also cover whether operators "avoid adding strain to already stretched electricity grids".
Climate Home News reported that nothing further had been released, "including whether it will include a clean energy commitment or whether governments and companies will be invited to sign on."
Australian rules for disclosure, clean power and grid impact
Australia already requires energy-use reporting by law, and has agreed or proposed data centre rules for clean power and grid impact. Apart from reporting, none of these measures is yet binding nationally. National Cabinet agreed on 26 August to develop consistent mandatory standards for data centre energy, water and land use, and intends to legislate them in early 2027.
COP31 expectation | Australian measure | Status |
|---|---|---|
Transparency on energy use | The company controlling any facility that uses 100 terajoules or more a year reports that energy use to the Clean Energy Regulator | Law, under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting scheme |
Grid transparency | A public register of existing and prospective loads of 5MW or more, listing proponent, requested capacity and ramp rate | Rule change request lodged by Bowen, 22 July. Not yet initiated |
Clean energy | Offset demand with new renewable generation built in the state hosting the data centre | Agreed by energy ministers, 28 July |
Clean energy | Contracts with new generation and storage projects in New South Wales | NSW data centre guidelines (Performance Measure 13), 17 August. Not a statute |
Stretched grids | Show demand is backed by new firm capacity, and take connection terms that reward shifting load | AEMC advice to ministers, released 5 August |
Stretched grids | Networks to hold security, such as a bank guarantee, on large connections | Rule change request lodged by Bowen, 22 July. Not yet initiated |
Source: Clean Energy Regulator; AEMC rule change request ERC0448; Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council communique, 28 July 2026; NSW Data Centre Guidelines; AEMC advice to ministers, 5 August 2026. The grid expectation is as reported by Eco-Business.
The reporting threshold of 100 terajoules works out at about 28 gigawatt hours a year, so any data centre drawing more than about 3MW on average is inside it. The proposed register, which AEMO would host, would add something those reports do not show: the connection capacity each existing and planned load has asked the grid for. The AEMC has not yet started work on it.
On clean energy, energy ministers agreed on 28 July that data centres should offset their demand with additional renewable generation in the state that hosts them. New South Wales has gone further through its NSW data centre guidelines, which ask for contracts of at least ten years with generation and storage projects that have not yet reached a final investment decision. Projects that meet the guidelines are promised a 75-day state assessment. Goodman's 135MW Project Apollo at Macquarie Park carries the energy condition in its approval, and cannot operate until it shows new renewable supply contracted in the state.
That echoes a Climate Council comparison in June, which found four of its seven recommended data centre rules already in force or best practice.
The IEA says regulators are weighing connection charges
The IEA explains why data centres strain grid planning. Individual campuses "can require hundreds of megawatts of power or more, often clustered geographically, and can move from announcement to operation in two to three years," while major network reinforcements "usually take much longer than this to plan, permit and build."
"Regulators are considering connection charges, minimum payments and stranded-asset protections to reduce the risk that the costs of grid investments triggered by very large loads are shifted to other consumers," the report says. Bowen's July request is one version of that. It asks the AEMC to make networks take "pre-payment or provision of bank guarantees" on connections above a threshold, so that if a project falls over, other customers are not left paying for grid built for it.
The report also says renewables alone do not secure supply: "Buying in renewables can make an important contribution, but meeting demand securely requires a portfolio of generation, storage, grid capacity and flexibility rather than individual sources alone." The AEMC's advice to ministers is built the same way, pairing certificates from new renewable generators with a requirement that demand be backed by new firm capacity.
The IEA treats data centres as a potential grid resource as well as a load. Selected computing workloads can be moved in time or place, and batteries and on-site generation can cut what a site draws from the grid; Google reports 1GW of contracted data centre demand response in the United States. Closer to home, Andrew Charlton, the Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy, has made a related case, arguing that data centres that connect where the grid has spare capacity can ease household network costs.
What to watch
The draft pledge. Türkiye has said a draft will be shared before COP31 opens on 9 November. Whether it invites companies to sign, and whether it carries a grid condition, will decide whether it asks anything of AI data centres and other data centres in Australia beyond the domestic measures.
Australia's position. The pledge is an initiative of Türkiye's presidency, while Australia chairs the negotiations between governments, so adopting it would be a separate decision for Canberra.
The Senate inquiry. The Senate inquiry into artificial intelligence and data centres holds its next public hearing in Canberra on 1 October and reports on 16 November, in the second week of the summit. Councils that want data centres asked it for national rules.
The standards bill. The government intends to legislate the national standards in early 2027 for new proposals, which covers most of the pipeline still to be built.