Early day motion tabled by primary sponsor Richard Burgon (Labour), on Tuesday, 1 September 2026, in the House of Commons. It is signed by 24 members in total.

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Moratorium on new AI data centres

That this House recognises that the climate crisis is happening now, with this summer’s extreme heat already causing thousands of deaths across Britain, and that for decades to come it will affect food prices, whether people can work safely, the functioning of our public services and our economic and national security; believes that the impacts of the climate emergency must be central to decisions about major new energy-intensive infrastructure; is deeply concerned at the unchecked expansion of large corporate AI data centres across the country and notes their vast energy and water needs could increase pressure on energy and water supplies, make it harder to meet climate targets, place significant additional pressure on local infrastructure and risk driving up costs for consumers; and calls for a national moratorium on new AI data centres and for the Government, during that moratorium, to work with local communities to fully assess their environmental, public health and infrastructure impacts and weigh these impacts against any potential benefits.

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Secondary information

Type

Early day motion

Reference

706 

Session

2026-27

Other sponsors

Sorcha Eastwood

Jeremy Corbyn

Cat Eccles

Neil Duncan-Jordan

Adrian Ramsay

Subjects

Climate change Energy Infrastructure Data centres

Link

View this Early day motion on edm.parliament.uk