Proposal seeks more aggressive energy efficiency goals for European Union, as well as data center consumption transparency.

The EU's European Council this week adopted some new approaches to the region's energy transition and battle against carbon emissions. The new proposals, which the council will present to the European Parliament, seek more aggressive energy efficiency standards and target transparency in energy consumption at data centers.

The new proposals would require member states to reduce their states' energy consumption (i.e. increase energy efficiency) by an average of 1.5% annually until 2030. The proposals also put more of a responsibility on the public sector, to reduce annual energy consumption by 1.9% each year until 2030. The European Council also agreed to require its member states to renovate each year a minimum of 3% "of the total floor area of buildings owned by public bodies," according to the council's website.

Interestingly, the proposals also target data center consumption, requiring data centers throughout the union to public information on energy consumption each year after 2024, with which the European Commission would build a database on data center consumption. This addition feels random in the context of the announcement but clearly, Europe is considering ways to make these data centers, which have become so crucial in modern life, more energy efficient.