Schneider Electric, a global leader in energy technology, today released new findings showing that climate risks are not yet fully reflected in physical asset valuations, and that structured investment in resilience reduces climate exposure by a third.
The research, conducted by the Schneider Electric Research Institute and SE Advisory Services, quantifies how much climate hazards can erode value.
Applied to data centres1, the fastest-growing asset class of the AI era, these figures show that US$388 billion, representing over a third (38%) of global data centre asset value, constitutes unpriced climate exposure and a measurable opportunity for resilience investment. The research shows that physical risk per GW is approximately 2.
6 times higher at new AI-era facilities than across the existing installed base, mainly due to the greater financial impact of downtime at scale. Combined with published forward-looking AI growth scenarios, the research identifies a potential increase in total climate exposure from $388 billion to $1.0 and $3.
7 trillion, reflecting the scale of infrastructure currently being planned and built. Exposure levels vary markedly by region, reflecting differences in local hazards and heat stress, energy and grid characteristics, and how disruptions propagate through upstream suppliers.
