Data center litigation: an emerging frontier for climate litigation? - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/data-center-litigation-an-emerging-frontier-for-climate-litigation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Data center litigation: an emerging frontier for climate litigation? - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This commentary maps the emerging wave of climate litigation challenging data center developments, from an early case in Chile over...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/data-center-litigation-an-emerging-frontier-for-climate-litigation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-18T14:04:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sabin_compact.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1077\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1077\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/news\\\/data-center-litigation-an-emerging-frontier-for-climate-litigation\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/news\\\/data-center-litigation-an-emerging-frontier-for-climate-litigation\\\/\",\"name\":\"Data center litigation: an emerging frontier for climate litigation? 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{"id":87825,"date":"2026-02-19T14:52:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/?post_type=news&p=87825"},"modified":"2026-08-18T15:04:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T14:04:00","slug":"data-center-litigation-an-emerging-frontier-for-climate-litigation","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/data-center-litigation-an-emerging-frontier-for-climate-litigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Data center litigation: an emerging frontier for climate litigation?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This commentary maps the emerging wave of climate litigation challenging data center developments, from an early case in Chile over water extraction to recent disputes in Ireland and California. Emily Bradeen and Eoin Jackson examine how climate arguments are being used to contest planning approvals for the energy- and water-intensive infrastructure underpinning AI and cloud computing.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate Law (Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School)