02/10/2026
Campaigners across Europe today launched a Day of Action to Stop Dirty Data Centres and Scotland will be taking part!
So hold the date for something happening in Edinburgh, coordinated by Friends of the Earth Scotland, on Saturday 14th November - more information to follow!
Keep an eye on Friends of the Earth Scotland social media for more information.
More on the Day of Action
Civil society organisations, citizens and residents groups across Europe are planning actions to “stop dirty data centres” on 6 and 7 November.
Digital rights, environmental and community groups across the continent have joined forces, with 42 groups in ten countries planning mass demonstrations, local actions, public events, book launches and even cycle rides.
Groups from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom have signed up, with more expected to join ahead of the days of action.
The range and creativity of actions being planned reflect the many and varied reasons people oppose the rapid and unchecked expansion of hyperscale data centres.
Data centres are warehouses for computers – large-scale infrastructure facilities that house computer servers used to store and process vast amounts of data. Their rapid expansion, driven in part by growing demand for artificial intelligence, is increasing demand for water, energy and land.
StopDirtyDataCentres.eu is calling for moratoria on large-scale data centres at EU, national and local levels until their wide-ranging environmental, democratic and social impacts have been properly scrutinised.
Campaign groups and local communities are raising concerns about pollution, water and energy use, pressure on local infrastructure, and the overriding of planning rules and local democracy amid local housing shortages and rising energy bills. Campaigners are also highlighting wider concerns linked to Artificial Intelligence (AI) produced inside these hyperscale facilities: surveillance and privacy, securitisation and militarisation including their involvement in severe human rights violations and genocide; and the impact of social media and AI on young people’s mental health.
Campaigners say fundamental questions remain about how many data centres are needed, what they are for, where they should be built, how their vast resource demands can be accommodated in a climate-constrained world and how they can actually benefit local economies and communities.
Kat Jones, Director of Action to Protect Rural Scotland (UK), said:
“This day of action has come at the right time for people in Scotland who are desperate to make their voices heard. Only this week a new application came in for a 1000MW data centre, bigger than any operating in the world at the moment in a direct challenge to Scotland's pause on planning decisions. We didn't ask for this, it's time for governments to listen to their people and not to Big Tech.
