The Scottish government has announced that any new datacentre project above 50MW will be required to submit an environmental impact assessment as part of the planning process, ahead of a Holyrood vote on a proposed moratorium on new hyperscale datacentres. The move comes amid a surge in planning applications driven by global investment in AI infrastructure, and growing public concern over the water usage, carbon emissions and energy demands of large-scale facilities. It stops short of the outright pause campaigners and the Scottish Greens are pushing for, but represents a tightening of the rules developers must follow.

More than 20 large datacentres have been proposed in Scotland, including a scheme in Auchtertool, Fife, billed as the second-largest in the world. The Scottish Greens have tabled a motion calling for a moratorium until a national strategy and updated planning guidance are in place, and hundreds of protesters gathered outside Holyrood this month over the issue. Public finance minister Hannah Mary Goodlad said the assessments would create a "level playing field" for developers, while campaigner Kat Jones of Action to Protect Rural Scotland welcomed the move but warned that without a pause, the first four applications under consideration alone could use as much energy as Torness nuclear power station, which closes in 2030.