Press release · 2 October 2026
Scotland's unbridled rush for giant data centres threatens water, clean air and local communities' rights, experts warn
Foundation for Gaia calls for binding limits on water, full publication of what each site uses, and a national decision on how much capacity Scotland can sustain.
2 October 2026
Amid a wave of massive, controversial proposals for hyperscale and AI data centres across Scotland, including massive developments flagged in rural Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway, civil society leaders are sounding the alarm over the severe lack of regulatory oversight and the massive strain these facilities place on local energy grids and ecosystems.
Foundation for Gaia has published an open letter and recommendations1 to Hannah Mary Goodlad MSP, Minister for Public Finance, calling for binding limits on water, full publication of what each site uses, and a national decision on how much capacity Scotland can sustain.
The warning comes as communities and environmental campaigners push back against unchecked digital infrastructure expansion. While the Scottish Government has introduced a temporary pause on new applications until national guidance and a strategy are in place, sector experts argue that substantive guidance and regulation must be implemented ahead of any new licences to address the far reaching impacts on communities, water resources and clean air.
The Foundation for Gaia has set out core demands addressing the scale of what is proposed and critical gaps in current assessment frameworks:
- Capacity before consent: The overall scale of development must be settled before individual sites are consented. A national view of how much capacity Scotland actually needs must precede individual decisions rather than follow them.
- Radical transparency on environmental data: What a site uses and discharges must be published as a matter of course, rather than released only upon request or withheld behind "commercial confidentiality" clauses.
- Enforceable human rights standards: Infrastructure decisions must explicitly align with Scotland's existing domestic and international human rights obligations, with official guidance demonstrating compliance from day one.
Decisions about water, air, energy and land on this scale are human rights decisions as well as planning decisions. A temporary pause on decisions is welcome, but it will count for little unless the guidance that follows sets binding limits on the use of natural resources and guarantees meaningful participation of communities whose land and human rights are affected. Rural landscapes, precious habitats, and public energy supplies should not be sacrificed to feed unchecked expansion by the tech sector.
We need robust, transparent national planning guidance that forces developers to prove ecological compatibility and community benefit from day one, rather than leaving residents to fight goliath infrastructure projects on their own. Communities across Scotland recognise that digital progress cannot come at the expense of our environmental future and are calling for the government to take concrete action.
Campaigners are urging the Scottish Government to close existing planning loopholes permanently, mandate full environmental scrutiny for all hyperscale digital proposals, and ensure local voices are placed at the heart of Scotland's energy policy.
ENDS
Notes to editors
- Open letter to the Scottish Government on national planning guidance for data centres. Foundation for Gaia writes to the Minister for Public Finance with recommendations for Scotland's forthcoming national planning and spatial guidance on data centres, 1 October 2026.
Contacts
- Mandie McKeown: mandie@foundationforgaia.org
- Gloria Montgomery: gloria@foundationforgaia.org