Labour TD and climate spokesperson Ciáran Ahern has thrown down the gauntlet to the government – are they more interested in building data centres, or homes?
New figures from the Central Statistics Office found that data centres used up 22% of Ireland’s electricity supply last year, a jump from the 5% figure in 2015.
Ahern said that Ireland cannot hit its legally binding climate targets, or its planned housing targets, while also giving preferential treatment to data centres.
“These figures paint a stark picture. Data centres are now eating up more than a fifth of our electricity supply, and their appetite is only growing; we keep going like this, we’ll blow past our emissions targets and sink any remaining chance of reaching our climate goals” he said.
“It’s not just the climate targets at risk. The Secretary General of the Department of the Environment recently said if we continue expanding data centres at the current rate, we won’t have enough energy for the housing we so desperately need.”
Ahern said that the government has a choice to make; do they want homes or home pages
“We need transparency and leadership from the government: are we going to meet our climate targets, or are we going to keep ploughing ahead with expansion of data centres?”
“Data centres are and will continue to be an important part of our industrial infrastructure. Labour are not against them, but we cannot allow data centres to come at the expense of our climate goals, our energy security or the need to put roofs over our peoples’ heads,” the Dublin South-West TD said.
“I would again urge the government to introduce a moratorium on new construction until such a time as we can be sure that they will not impact on our climate targets and our energy security.”
“That means introducing a robust legislative and regulatory framework so that we can be sure they will not threaten our binding limits on carbon emissions or our energy security.”
“Labour is demanding clarity from the government: will we meet our climate obligations, or will we continue down this unsustainable path of endless data centre expansion?”
Ahern said “the time for double-speak is over- the government must stop pretending that there are no trade-offs involved in its current data centre expansion plan. The public needs to know the plan, or whether there even is one.”