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A British court has approved moving forward with a legal challenge against a government decision that authorized the construction of a massive data center outside London, marking a legal precedent in the United Kingdom.

Last year, the UK government granted approval for a 90-megawatt data center project in Buckinghamshire, despite objections from the local planning authority. Environmental and non-profit organizations subsequently filed a legal appeal, arguing that the decision failed to properly assess the project’s climate and energy impact.

According to the claimants, the approval process overlooked the substantial electricity demand required to power and cool large-scale data infrastructure. They noted that official assessments focused primarily on office facilities, rather than the true energy consumption of servers and computing systems.

While the project developer defended the legality of the approval and confirmed compliance with existing regulations, the Ministry of Housing and Local Government acknowledged in official correspondence that the decision contained procedural flaws. The ministry admitted that climate mitigation measures referenced in the approval were not legally binding.

The UK High Court has now ruled that the case may proceed to a full hearing later this year, as public scrutiny intensifies over the environmental footprint of data centers amid rapidly growing global demand fueled by artificial intelligence expansion.