Are your data centres green? Is a question being posed in Scotland as green data centres are at the heart of the Scottish governments ambitions to develop economically reports The Guardian on Monday 25 May (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-
news/2026/may/25/scotland-policy-green-datacentres-emissions-impact-ai-analysis). However, according to Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS), an Edinburgh-based charity, the government appears to have no clear definition of what a “green data centre” is.
This means that current AI developments might call themselves “green” while their impact on the climate are ignored
The Green MSP Ariane Burgess, representing Highlands and Islands, said: “We urgently need transparency around what constitutes a ‘green data centre’ and how their huge energy demands will be accommodated by our grid infrastructure. “So far, the answers we’ve been getting out of the Scottish government have not provided any clarity,” she said.
More than a dozen data centres in Scotland are in the process of getting planning permission, including an AI growth zone in Lanarkshire, near Glasgow, which claims to be backed by £8.2bn in private investment. Collectively, they stand to use roughly 6.2GW of power – one-and-a-half times more than the peak power use of all of Scotland in the winter.
In a statement, a Scottish government spokesperson said: “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.”
Dr Kat Jones, Director of APRS said: “The Scottish Government have backed themselves into a corner, and put all of Scotland’s planning authorities into an impossible situation by not coming up with a definition of what ‘green data centre’ is. When we raised this issue back in December with the Scottish Government, and pointed out the lack of a definition, we expected some urgent policy work to be done. 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. The new Scottish Government needs to urgently address the major shortcomings of their current policy on data centres.”
You can find out more about the environmental impact of data centres from Friends of the
Earth at: https://www.friendsoftheearth.ie/assets/files/pdf/foe_data_centre_resource_updated_may_
2025.pdf . Also see: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/may/18/uk-datacentres-
plan-to-burn-gas-to-generate-electricity