The London School of Economics (LSE) published its latest annual review of climate litigation, identifying an increasing number of lawsuits challenging the energy sources, water consumption, and air pollution associated with datacentres. The LSE analysis reviewed approximately 3,600 climate-related lawsuits filed since 2015.

In 2020, residents and the local council in Santiago, Chile, filed a lawsuit challenging permits for a Google datacentre in the Cerrillos area. The legal challenge succeeded in halting the project on the grounds that its climate impacts had not been properly considered.

The report identified Ireland as a location with litigation against datacentres, which consume more than 20% of the nation's electricity. In December, Ireland's Commission for the Regulation of Utilities stated that large energy users, including datacentres, would be permitted to operate on fossil fuels for the next six years, after which they must transition to running on at least 80% renewables. Friends of the Irish Environment, Friends of the Earth Ireland, and ClientEarth are seeking a judicial review of this decision. Friends of the Irish Environment also brought a claim against the Environmental Protection Agency over its approval of a datacentre project in South Dublin.

Litigation is ongoing in Georgia and Pennsylvania against state regulators for approving new fossil fuel infrastructure linked to datacentres. In Mississippi, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People brought a case against xAI, arguing the company is breaching the Clean Air Act by operating portable methane gas generators without required permits. The US Department of Justice is attempting to block this lawsuit, claiming that xAI's work is essential to the economy.

In the United Kingdom, campaigners took legal action against the government's decision to approve the construction of a hyperscale datacentre in Buckinghamshire. Foxglove and Global Action Plan, represented by Leigh Day, stated that the approval process overlooked the project's electricity and water demands. The UK government acknowledged flaws in the approval process, and the lawsuit was dropped after the developer agreed that environmental impact mitigation measures would be made binding through a contract with the council.

Joana Setzer, an associate professor at the London School of Economics and a co-author of the report, said, "It is an opportunity to get these massively energy-intensive developments powered by renewables at the moment in time where that is possible." The report noted that cases in the US and UK demonstrate how litigation can influence climate-related decision-making, even without positive judgments being issued.