A report by the London School of Economics (LSE) cited by The Guardian in its annual climate litigation review indicates that non-governmental organizations, local communities, and environmental activists from Chile to Ireland and the US are seeking to block data center construction and operation through courts, citing high energy consumption, water usage, and climate risks. Researchers analyzed approximately 3,600 climate lawsuits filed globally since 2015, detecting a rise in cases linked to data centers. One of the earliest cases was filed against a Google project in Santiago, Chile, where in 2020, local residents challenged a construction permit, arguing it threatened water resources; the court ruled the project’s climate impacts had been inadequately assessed. In Ireland, more than 20% of the country’s total electricity consumption is allocated to data centers, and environmental organizations are pursuing legal action against decisions allowing new facilities to use fossil fuels. In the US, officials in Pittsburg, California, imposed obligations on a new data center to use renewable energy and recycled water, while lawsuits challenge approvals of fossil-fuel-based energy infrastructure. A project by Elon Musk’s xAI in Mississippi faced legal pressure for using methane generators without environmental permits, violating the Clean Air Act; the US Department of Justice defended the project. In the United Kingdom, activists secured a review of an environmental assessment for a mega-scale data center project in Buckinghamshire.