People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith has called on the Green Party to act in what she calls “the face of an unfolding global climate disaster.”
The Dublin South Central TD said that the Green Party needed to show more than “empty rhetoric” in the face of the climate crisis and Ireland’s sky-high emissions and to act on the mandate granted to them by voters at the 2020 general election.
She claimed the approval of data centres, and the permissions granted for fossil fuel generators, show how “empty the Greens rhetoric in Government is.”
Smith was speaking after news that Amazon had secured planning permission for a large-scale gas power plant in Grange Castle in County Kildare.
The TD noted that Microsoft had obtained permission for 150 diesel generators to power their data centre hubs.
She said the news that Amazon and Microsoft have received approval for further data centre backup fossil fuel generator construction shows that there is an utter disconnect between Minister Ryan’s rhetoric and the Government’s actions.”
The TD has introduced a bill to ban the proliferation of data centres but said that it was “extraordinary that it was opposed by the Greens Party.”
Speaking in June, Smith said “you can’t lecture ordinary people about behavioural change while telling Big Tech go ahead, whatever you want is good.”
She said People Before Profit would be proposing what she calls “radical measures” in response to the climate crisis, including bans on SUVs and private jets, lobbying for free public transport, a ban on fossil fuel advertising, and the halting of further progression of existing exploration licenses, in the next Dáil term.
The TD said “it’s clear that piecemeal tax measures on ordinary people and a hope in future technology is not a sufficient or credible response to the climate crisis and Ireland’s emissions.”
“We need to get radical and that means a direct confrontation with those profiting from fossil fuels. This means imposing measures to take these profits and redirect those resources to a just transition that can drive down emissions.”