Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, a coalition of over 70 civil society groups and organisations have backed APRS’s campaign for a pause on hyperscale data centres in Scotland and have written a document for the Government to look at what the conditions might be to lift the moratorium
This document has been sent to the Scottish Government ahead of the First Minister announcing his ‘Programme for Government’ which is due to take place on Tuesday 1 September. They are concerns about the serious implications for our climate goals of hyperscale data centres.
The document says that ;
- The Scottish Government must create a moratorium on data centre developments in Scotland which:
- Is effective immediately
- Applies to applications in every stage of the planning system. Developments that have already submitted plans to local planning authorities should be called in by the Scottish Government before the decision is made, and paused until the conditions to lift the moratorium are met.
- Applies to all data centre applications of 50MW and above, including within AI Growth Zones
- Is fully upheld by the Scottish Government and only reviewed once the below conditions are met.
The conditions that they lay out for it to be lifted are when the Scottish Government has:
- articulated the purposes for which Scotland needs 50MW+ data centres (what they will be used for and how this enhances public good). Scottish Government has produced a clear definition of a green data centre and
communicated this to local authorities via statutory planning guidance. This should align with the lifecycle greenhouse gas assessment in NPF4 (National Development 12) and only apply to small data centres to be used in support of fibre broadband. - delivered independent analysis of the impact of hyperscale data centres on Scotland’s grid and route to net zero.
- produced planning guidance for data centres of 50MW and above.
- ensured that all data centres over 50MW complete a full EIA at the pre-planning stage,
- guarantee that the costs of supplying electricity to data centres will not fall onto the Scottish public and other industries
As a member of APRS, we fully support this statement and hope that we will see some commitments from the Scottish Government in the Programme for Government on Tuesday