After months of growing pressure from campaigners and protests by communities up and down the country, the Scottish Government announced that planning applications for data centres over 50MW will require environmental impact assessments (EIAs). Scottish Government Ministers subsequently confirmed that this would apply retroactively to all planning applications.
The announcement came ahead of a parliamentary vote on a data centre moratorium, tabled by the Scottish Greens yesterday, which also signalled a significant shift in political direction. There was cross-party consensus from all parties on the need for clear national planning guidance to be published as soon as possible, and the Minister for Public Finance confirmed that new government guidance would be coming forward in the next three months.
While the Scottish Government resisted the Scottish Greens’ call for a formal moratorium, they agreed to a temporary pause, backing a Labour amendment stating that ‘no decision on planning or consenting in relation to such matters should be made’ until national planning guidance has been published.
Separately, the Convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Climate Action Committee confirmed that it is preparing to launch an inquiry to scrutinise the environmental impact of data centres, which may have implications for future government policy.
ERCS and APRS first wrote to the Scottish Government in December 2025, calling on the Scottish Government to carry out an analysis of the cumulative impact of new data centres on Scotland’s energy supplies, energy prices and climate targets; publish new planning guidance defining the meaning of a ‘green data centre’; and making environment impact assessments mandatory for all planning applications. We renewed these calls in a letter to the First Minister in June.
ERCS’s law service has advised a number of individuals and community groups resisting applications for hyperscale data centres. In July, in response to a request made by ERCS on behalf of our client, the Scottish Government issued a ‘screening direction’ requiring an EIA to be carried out for a proposal to build a 210-megawatt data centre in the South Gyle area of Edinburgh.
Shivali Fifield, ERCS Chief Officer, said:
‘Yesterday’s announcements are a real victory for everyone concerned about the rush to develop a new wave of hyperscale AI data centres, and the negative impacts they could have on the health of communities and the environment. But mandatory environmental impact assessments are only the first step. The Scottish Government must now go further and carry out a robust analysis of the cumulative impacts of hyperscale data centres to ensure that they won’t push up energy prices, break our energy grid, or derail progress towards our climate targets. Communities must have an equitable say in developments in their local area, and the onus must be on developers to prove that they are serving the public good.’
ENDS
For more information contact
Benji Brown, Policy & Advocacy Officer
Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland
bbrown@ercs.scot, 07856 407479
NOTES TO EDITORS
[1] The Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS) is an environmental law charity. We carry out advocacy in policy and law reform to improve environmental rights, and full compliance with the Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making, and access to justice on environmental matters. www.ercs.scot
