A recent vote on a motion within the Scottish Parliament resulted in a pause on hyperscale data centre developments. In the context of the climate and nature crises we don’t consider the terms of the motion to be strong enough. ELCAN believes we need a legally binding moratorium until such time as national planning guidance and strategic assessments of data centres are in place.
After months of pressure, a motion was tabled in the Scottish Parliament on data centres and debated on 14th September. The resulting vote was in favour of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) being carried out on all data centres over 50MW (including current and future applications) and a pause of up to 12 months on all hyperscale data centre decisions until such time as national planning guidance on data centres is published by the Scottish Government. This is a huge step forward for community campaigners.
However, what was agreed falls short of a legally binding moratorium. We also know that EIAs are a blunt instrument and often fail as a tool to support community, climate and nature aligned decisions to be made on other developments, such as housing. From Scotland’s experience of EIAs, we know they will be insufficient to stop or slow data centre developments. We believe that in the climate and nature crisis, we also need a national strategic assessment of both need and impact before embarking on any controversial data centre developments.
The Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS) and Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS) first wrote to the Scottish Government in December 2025, calling it 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 environmental impact assessments mandatory for all planning applications. We believe these requirements still need to be fulfilled by the Scottish Government.
To understand our broader set of concerns around data centres, you can read our original article on data centres here. Though please note our strengthened position regarding data centres above.
