Members of the Scottish Parliament voted to issue a moritorium on planning applciations for new AI data centres being planned in Scotland for up to a year.

The pause on AI data centres will be in effect until Scotland develops its own national strategy to contend with the rise of AI and its associated infrastructure.

Data centres are vital to providing the amount of data power to back AI systems – Scotland has seen an uptick in planning applications due to its relatively cooler climate, more water resources, and use of renewable energy. Climate change, continuious periods of water scarcity in regions of Scotland, and AI’s thirst for energy beyond the potnetial capability of the grid, have thrown these comforts into doubt.

The public and environmental agencies have raised their concerns on the effect of data centres on the natural ecosystem, water usage, and carbon emissions. Question surrounding the energy grid, water usage, and climate impact remain as environmental assessments are often not required in planning applications for data centres.

Now, MSPs have backed a motion introduced by Scottish Labour to delay planning application decisions for up to a year until formal national guidance for AI data centre planning can be formed.

Further, applications must meet new standards for stringent environmental impact assessments that consider all of an AI data centres’ impact on the surrounding area.

While AI data centres have been continually proposed across Scotland, communities and councils have pushed back due to lacklustre environmental impact assessments and concerns on energy and water usage from these hyperscale data centres.

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The Action to Protect Rural Scotland has been a major driver of the data centre pushback. Kat Jones, the group’s director, said that the Scottish Parliamentry vote served as a “landmark day for all thosecommunities across Scotland who have been extremely concerned about projects coming forward in their areas.”

“There’s much still to be done, but this is a huge step forward and we can all at least take a breath now.

“That means the Scottish government must now urgently call in those applications which are approaching a decision date. The communities will expect nothing less.”