Forty mayors from cities across four continents have signed a landmark pact setting out the conditions under which they will accept AI data centres.
This comes as urban authorities push back against an industry they say is straining power grids, draining water supplies and squeezing out housing.
The pact, launched Tuesday during London Climate Action Week by C40 Cities, an alliance of nearly 100 cities working to tackle climate change, sets common standards on clean energy, site selection, water use and community benefit.
It is the first coordinated global attempt by city governments to get ahead of data centre expansion before it overwhelms them.
About 1,700 data centres are already located across C40's network of cities and development is expected to grow by more than 40% in 50 of those cities.
