Public radio’s longest-running daily global news program.AboutContactDonateMeet the TeamPrivacyTerms of use©2026 The World from PRXPRX is a 501(c)(3) organization recognized by the IRS: #263347402.Global climate litigation is increasingly targeting data centersNew analysis from the London School of Economics finds an increase in lawsuits around the world targeting data centers. The World’s Host Marco Werman speaks with the report’s researcher, Eoin Jackson, to learn more. TechnologyJune 30, 2026Updated: June 30, 20267:39A data center owned by Amazon Web Services, front right, is under construction next to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Berwick, Pa., Jan. 14, 2025.AI is everywhere. ChatGPT, Claude, the Google summary that pops up every time you type something into the search bar.AI also comes with data centers, massive facilities that house the physical infrastructure that runs much of our online world, increasingly including AI. But data centers require incredible amounts of space, electricity and water to operate.So, now communities across the globe that oppose them are using legal channels to stop this. New analysis from the London School of Economics found that, globally, the number of lawsuits targeting data centers is increasing.Eoin Jackson is an attorney with the school who conducted the research at the heart of that analysis. He says one of the key points of contention is a data center’s energy source.“To power the data centers, many of the developers and many of the tech companies have turned to fossil fuels, and that has raised significant environmental, health, climate concerns, both in the United States and across the world.”He spoke with The World’s Host Marco Werman about the concerns.Alexandra Crawford holds a sign outside a planning commission meeting, June 11, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. The commission will consider an ordinance regulating data centers. George Walker IV/APThere are certainly a lot of similarities. There are a lot of efforts to highlight the local environmental impacts that data centers can have. Cases in the UK, in Ireland, in Virginia have all cited, for example, the impacts on water consumption. Increasingly, we are seeing efforts to highlight the climate impacts of these data centers. So, litigators in California, the UK, Chile have all noted that the use of fossil fuels by these data centers will compromise our efforts to stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius as part of our global, national and regional climate commitments. So, there’s an increased recognition that data centers pose a significant environmental threat. And as you noted, how courts deal with this will depend entirely on which jurisdiction we are in, but litigators are often arriving at the same conclusions and bringing the same set of arguments to the courts.Construction continues at Entergy’s Orange County Advanced Power Station, a 1,215-megawatt facility, Feb. 24, 2025, in Orange, Texas.David J. Phillip/APVisitors review DELTA’s AI Modular Data Center at the Computex Taipei exhibition, one of the world’s largest computer and technology expos, in Taipei, Taiwan, June 2, 2026. Chiang Ying-ying/APParts of this interview have been lightly edited for length and clarity.