Calls for Government to reconsider position on data centres [Video]

Friends of the Earth Ireland is calling on the Government to reconsider its position on the expansion of data centres and to respond to the policy recommendations in new expert research.

The research by Professor Hannah Daly, commissioned by Friends of the Earth, reveals a stark picture concerning the increased use of fossil fuels by data centres and how this rising consumption of gas by the industry is creating a blindspot in our climate action planning. 

Professor Daly’s analysis also points to the injustice of the state’s data centre policy whereby data centres are diverting renewable energy to serve the industry’s growth, instead of reducing the national use of fossil fuels.

Furthermore, this report shows how the emerging phenomenon of data centres plugging directly into the gas network puts Ireland at risk of vastly overshooting our carbon budgets.

Friends of the Earth Ireland believes this research should be a wake up call to decision makers that …