Campaigners across Britain will join together to oppose Big Tech’s unchecked expansion of hyperscale data centres.
Global Action Plan UK is coordinating two days of action from Friday, 27 February 2026 and with communities and campaigners across the country, calling for stronger protection of our climate in the face of rapid hyperscale data centre expansion.
Local campaigners and NGOs concerned by hyperscale data centre growth are organising public-facing activities to draw attention to the impacts this infrastructure will have on the environment and their local communities.
Devastating
Data centres put a massive strain on the UK’s finite water and power supplies, imposing on local communities, delaying much needed housing projects and jeopardising our move to clean power by 2030.
The British Government has admitted it made a “serious logical error” in approving a large data centre in Buckinghamshire without sufficient environmental protections.
Oliver Hayes, head of campaigns at Global Action Plan, said: “Big Tech’s unchecked construction of hyperscale AI data centres is putting the UK’s climate targets at risk.
“Communities across the UK are fighting to have their voices heard but are being drowned out while developers and big tech lobbyists hold the ear of government.”
“Giving Big Tech the power to monopolise our energy and water supply at the expense of our communities and climate, without any guarantee that these data centres will benefit society, is as reckless as it is foolish.”
Jake Simms, just transition coordinator at the London Mining Network, said: “The UK’s data centre expansions will require vast increases in mineral mining, with devastating impacts for mining affected communities globally.
Community-designed
“Skyrocketing demand for copper, aluminium and silicon needed for hardware and chips is driving a mining boom resulting in water scarcity, ecosystem collapse, and violence against Indigenous communities.
“Communities are demanding the right to say no to mining expansions on their lands. The UK’s rush to build data centres for AI must be stopped.”
Leigh Tugwood, co-chair of Iver Heath Residents Association, said: “We are not Hi-Tech NIMBYs by any means, and we welcome the potential benefits of IT.
“That said, the recent Woodlands Park planning debacle has highlighted our concerns that the UK government is so keen to fast track data centre development through the planning process as ‘vital infrastructure’ for economic growth, that there has not been enough scrutiny and oversight of potential impacts – particularly to local communities.