Holyrood has voted to pause planning applications for all new AI datacentres for up to a year until the Scottish government has developed a national strategy.
On Wednesday, MSPs backed a Scottish Labour motion to halt new schemes for up to 12 months while rules on hyperscale datacentres are developed in what could be a blow to the British government’s AI strategy.
Scotland has seen a boom in planning applications for large datacentres as global investment in AI infrastructure has exploded, with British officials encouraging developers to include Scotland in the infrastructure buildout. Datacentres are critical for storing and processing data used by AI. One scheme in Auchtertool, Fife, has been billed as the second largest in the world, and is among more than 20 large datacentres proposed so far.
Campaigners have raised concerns about water usage and carbon emissions from large datacentres, and questioned whether Scotland has the capacity to cope with the resulting explosion in energy demand.
On Wednesday, MSPs voted to approve only projects that meet robust environmental impact assessments that consider the impact of neighbouring communities, and to make no decisions on planning for datacentre applications for up to a year until national planning guidance has been formalised by the Scottish government.
Kat Jones, the director of the NGO Action to Protect Rural Scotland, who has spearheaded demands for a datacentre moratorium in Scotland, said the vote was a “landmark day for all those communities across Scotland who have been extremely concerned about projects coming forward in their areas.”
“There’s much still to be done, but this is a huge step forward and we can all at least take a breath now,” she said. “That means the Scottish government must now urgently call in those applications which are approaching a decision date. The communities will expect nothing less.”
Ahead of the vote, the Scottish government announced that large-scale datacentres would face mandatory environmental impact assessments, as a result of growing concern about the ecological impact of the AI boom.
This month, hundreds from community groups protested outside Holyrood against the construction of large datacentres for AI until clear planning rules and the definition of a “green” datacentre had been formalised.
On Thursday, AI leaders will gather at Dumfries House in Ayrshire for a summit with King Charles on the future of the technology, amid warnings that the speed of its development threatens the survival of humanity.
After the vote, the Scottish Labour economy spokesperson, Daniel Johnson, said the economic potential of the AI boom needed to be considered alongside the impacts on the environment, communities and energy demand.
“So far the SNP has failed to do the work needed to get this right – that must change. It is right that the SNP government has accepted the need for national guidance before more decisions are made, and I want to see that guidance delivered with the urgency needed,” he said.
“The SNP must put in place the protections needed and ensure that any datacentres work for communities, create good jobs and deliver for Scotland.”
The Scottish government has been contacted for comment.
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