(Image: Jane Barlow/PA Wire)
A national march against hyperscale data centres will be held in Edinburgh next month.
People from across Scotland will march down the Royal Mile on Saturday, November 14, culminating in a rally outside the Scottish Parliament.
The demonstration, organised by Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoES), is set to coincide with COP31, which is being held in Türkiye between November 9 and 20.
“Developers want to build monster data centres across Scotland and sell them on to big US tech companies,” FoES said.
The group claimed that the two dozen proposed data centres would "need twice as much as much electricity as Scotland’s peak usage".
"This has huge consequences for our energy bills, water, health, communities, climate and nature," campaigners said.
More than 20 data centres are in the planning pipeline in Scotland. (Image: NQ)
“Decisions on AI data centres should be led by the people, not by big tech profits. The people of Scotland must have a say on how our public resources are used.”
The march will leave the top of the Royal Mile at 12pm, with the rally at Holyrood beginning at 1pm.
The Scottish Government has pledged to issue new guidance addressing concerns by campaigners by the end of the year.
Last month, Public Finance Minister Hannah Mary Goodlad told The Herald: “I want communities to have confidence as to water usage. I want communities to have confidence in terms of the government being bold and ambitious in terms of community benefit and community wealth.
“I want communities to see that this government is taking some really bold action on trying to provide guidance on the right type of project, the right location, and the right energy use and water use.
“That's the kind of confidence I want to give our communities,” she said.
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“But I also want to give the business community and investors confidence that we are open to the right type of data centre, and that we are open for business, but that we're going to do this in our way.”
The march comes amid rising public backlash to data centres.
More than 25,000 people signed a petition calling on the Scottish Government to pause applications for new data centre projects while the planning guidance is being produced.
Dr Kat Jones, director of Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS), said: “It’s no good letting communities and local authorities continue to struggle with complicated and badly written applications when they will all have to be reconsidered in the light of the strategy and guidance ministers have promised to deliver.”