Several forces are defining this year’s sustainable agenda. EU regulations[1] carry real financial consequences, while AI's electricity demands[2] will demand serious choices to be made about energy infrastructure. Add in water scarcity, climate adaptation costs and China's cleantech export power, and it is easy to see just how influential sustainability will continue to be this year.
Let’s take a look at these trends in more detail.
AI creates sustainability problems and solutions
According to Gartner[3], data centre electricity consumption will rise from 448 TWh in 2025 to 980 TWh in 2030. This is in no small part thanks to the rise of AI. Currently, AI-optimised servers represent 21% of data centre power usage, which will rise to 44% by the end of the decade.
In other words, tech companies need massive electricity exactly when we're decarbonising grids. But the impact of AI is working both ways – at the same time, industrial companies are using AI to optimise energy consumption, automate ESG reporting and identify efficiency opportunities.
EU sustainability rules reach critical mass
The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive enforcement begins this year as well, along with an expansion of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the rollout of Digital Product Passports[4]. Together, they create a ‘regulatory flywheel effect’, pulling suppliers and SMEs into compliance.
The EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism[5] (CBAM) went at the start of the year. Importers buying cement, steel, aluminium, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen now pay for the embedded carbon. Purchasing decisions have changed. Supply chain strategies have changed. Companies seeing this as just another compliance headache are missing the point and the ones getting ahead are treating it as a push towards efficiency and a way to differentiate in the market.
Grid infrastructure becomes the bottleneck
Europe needs €584 billion in grid investments by 2030[6], with 40% of existing grids over 40 years old. Permitting for new transmission lines takes 12-17 years. Renewable projects sit in connection queues. All the while, transport and industry are being electrified while AI demands soar, but infrastructure can't keep up.
Industrial businesses need to factor in grid constraints into their location decisions. Companies planning to introduce EV fleets or heat pumps into their operations need to know if local grids can handle it. Energy-intensive manufacturers, meanwhile, are realising that grid capacity is becoming as critical as raw material access.
Climate adaptation shifts from planning to spending
Large publicly traded companies face annual costs at risk of $885 billion from physical climate impacts in the 2030s, according to S&P Global[7]. Heat waves shut down facilities, floods damage equipment and droughts disrupt supply chains – this isn't theoretical anymore.
The Institute of Sustainability Studies[8] makes a straightforward point. Talking about climate risk in reports doesn't help when your factory floods. Instead, proactive enterprises are spending on climate-resilient infrastructure, spreading their supplier base across different geographies and building systems that can adapt when conditions shift.
Water emerges as a material ESG metric
The UN[9] projects a 40% gap between global freshwater demand and supply by 2030. Nearly four billion people will face severe scarcity for at least one month each year.
Tighter regulations, higher costs, supply disruptions… industrial water users are feeling the pressure. Food processing needs it. Chemicals need it. Textiles and electronics need it. Companies are tracking consumption through their value chains and checking water stress levels before picking sites for new facilities.
Carbon accounting gets serious
CBAM taking effect means carbon data quality now has financial consequences. Suppliers need verified emissions data for their products. Manufacturers need accurate carbon footprints to give importers. Exporters need to prove what carbon pricing they've already paid at home. Get the data wrong and you pay more, but get it right, and you can make smarter decisions about where to manufacture, which suppliers to use and how to position your products.
Meanwhile, the GHG Protocol is overhauling its Scope 2 standards for how companies report electricity emissions. Carbon accounting is tightening up across the board, both at the product level and the company level.
China's cleantech exports reshape competition
China's green hydrogen push is gathering pace. Electrolyser deployment jumped from 1.5 GW in 2025 to 4.5 GW in 2026, with costs falling below $100/kW[10]. EU-certified green ammonia plants are operational, with Chinese exports hitting European markets at around $600 per tonne.
This matters beyond hydrogen. China's scale advantages in solar, batteries and EVs now extend to clean fuels. European and North American manufacturers face competition from Chinese companies which now have serious funding and proven cost advantages. If you're sourcing cleantech equipment or competing against Chinese exports, you need a strategy that can handle both the price pressure and geopolitics.
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