The key facts
- 23 data center projects are going through approval in Scottish councils
- If fully approved — 14 million tonnes of emissions a year by 2030 and 51% of the remaining carbon budget
- Capacity could grow from ~50 MW to 9,100 MW, environmentalists warn
Environmentalists' assessment: 23 projects and half the carbon budget
Scottish environmental organizations warn that the planned expansion of data centers for artificial intelligence could turn them into the country's largest source of pollution by 2030. Anadolu reports this citing calculations by Friends of the Earth Scotland, which are based on 23 data center projects currently going through approval procedures in various Scottish councils.
The figures and the reaction
According to the group's estimate, if all 23 projects are approved, by 2030 they could emit 14 million tonnes of greenhouse gases annually, and 208 million tonnes over their entire lifetime — amounting to 51% of Scotland's remaining carbon budget. The country's government has set an overall budget of 406 million tonnes for the period up to 2045, by which it has committed to reaching net-zero emissions. Scotland's existing data center capacity — around 50 MW — would grow 182-fold, to 9,100 MW, if all the projects are realized.
Statements by activists
“Data centers risk torpedoing Scotland's climate plans. If ministers approve all these projects, every other sector of Scottish life will have to cut climate pollution even faster and harder,” said Kim Pratt, senior campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland, in a comment to The National. According to her, “we cannot allow the remaining climate budget to be spent on AI junk instead of vital services, food production, and what people actually need.” Cat Jones, director of Action to Protect Rural Scotland, warned that building all the hyperscale data centers in the grid connection queue could triple Scotland's peak electricity demand, lead to new records in air pollution, and set the decarbonization of the economy back by decades.
