Scottish Parliament backs temporary moratorium on hyperscale data centers

Scotland's parliament voted to back a de facto, temporary moratorium on new hyperscale data center developments. No new projects will be approved until updated planning guidance is published.

Why it matters: This is one of the first formal legislative moratoriums, rather than just local pushback or polling, on AI-driven data center construction, following similar community resistance in Philadelphia and elsewhere. It could become a template other governments use to slow data center buildout while grid and planning capacity catch up.