The Scottish Government is facing urgent calls to address what campaigners describe as “major shortcomings” in its data centre policy, after an investigation revealed that the emissions from hyperscale AI facilities were excluded from assessments of so-called “green data centres.”
Oversight in National Planning Framework
Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS) has alleged that the government’s NPF4 national planning framework inaccurately claims that “green data centres” will have an “overall negligible impact” on the nation’s emissions reduction goals. However, the APRS investigation found that this assessment did not include hyperscale data centres – vast facilities which, according to tech firm IBM, can house at least 5,000 servers and “quite possibly miles of connection equipment.”
Kat Jones, director of APRS, branded the situation “pretty shocking.” She stated: “It is pretty shocking to find out that the vast carbon footprint of hyperscale data centres has been completely excluded from the Government’s greenhouse gas analysis. However, it is not surprising because, when our national planning framework was being written, Chat GPT had not launched and hyperscale AI data centres simply didn’t exist. One can only conclude that the ‘green data centres’ mentioned in Scotland’s planning framework do not include hyperscale AI data centres, and only include the smaller type of data centres used for business, data storage, research and cloud use.”
Policy Vacuum and Local Authority Challenges
The countryside charity noted that the government’s greenhouse gas assessment, published in October 2022, crucially predated the widespread launch of advanced AI systems such as ChatGPT. These technologies have since triggered an unprecedented and rapidly escalating demand for data centres globally, increasing their potential environmental footprint.
Ms Jones added that the Scottish Government’s failure to define a “green data centre” has placed local planning authorities in an “impossible situation.” APRS raised this critical lack of definition with the government in December 2025, anticipating “urgent policy work to be done.” Yet, Ms Jones recounted: “Instead we had a sentence in a parliamentary question saying that it was up to local authorities to decide what a green data centre was.” She insisted: “The new Scottish Government needs to urgently address the major shortcomings of their current policy on data centres.”
Edinburgh Data Centre Appeal Highlights Policy Gaps
This policy vacuum now casts a shadow over the future of a planned new data centre on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Edinburgh City Council refused planning permission for such a facility at the Gyle in February, but the developers have since lodged an appeal against this decision.
Ms Jones warned that the Edinburgh Gyle appeal is poised to be “incredibly consequential for the future of Scotland’s planned hyperscale data centres,” as it “will bring to light the complete lack of policy that exists around hyperscale AI data centres.” She elaborated: “This planning decision is being appealed, so the decision will be taken by the Scottish Government and the lack of a proper policy framework for hyperscale AI data centres will become glaringly obvious. Surely the only option now is that the Government put a moratorium on all decisions on hyperscale AI data centres so that policy can catch up with the headlong rush to use Scotland’s energy resources and countryside in the service of US tech giants to train and operate their AI models.”
Government Response
A Scottish Government spokesperson responded by highlighting the nation’s advantages: “Scotland has significant strengths as a location for green data centres – abundant renewable energy, a highly skilled workforce and a resilient fibre backbone. Our aim is to secure commercial investment in data centres that help drive economic growth while aligning with Scotland’s net zero ambitions and delivering benefits for communities.”
