Construction of Carbon Emission Accounting Model for Data Centers and Empirical Research

With the development of the digital economy, energy consumption and carbon emission issues of data centers (critical infrastructure) have become increasingly prominent. Based on the life cycle theory, this study establishes a carbon emission accounting model covering data center construction, operation and decommissioning, to systematically quantify the carbon footprint of each stage. The model integrates Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, and introduces regional power grid and renewable energy carbon emission factors to improve the regional adaptability and accuracy of accounting. Taking a large data center in northwest China as the empirical object, the model is applied for accounting. Results show that carbon emissions in the construction phase (8866.756 tCO₂e) are much higher than those in the operation phase (1806.507 tCO₂e), mainly due to high energy consumption of building material production and construction; in the operation phase, emissions are significantly reduced due to widespread use of green electricity. The study proposes emission reduction paths including low-carbon building materials, energy efficiency improvement and life cycle carbon management, which provides theoretical and practical references for the green and low-carbon transformation of data centers and is of great value for the industry to achieve the “dual carbon” goals.