Campaigners urge moratorium on data centres
Data Rise Electricity Centre By To 30% 2030 Demand Here Could
Climate campaigners have called for all political parties and general election candidates to implement a moratorium on new data centres, claiming they are increasing fossil fuel demand and jeopardising the country's electrical grid and climate goals.
At a demonstration outside the DataCentres Ireland Conference, held at Dublin's RDS on Wednesday, campaigners from Friends of the Earth Ireland and a number of environmental groups cited CSO figures which found that data centres used more than one-fifth (21%) of our electricity in 2023, making Ireland "a complete outlier in Europe in this regard".
A Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) report, published on Wednesday to coincide with this year’s UN climate change summit Cop29, noted how data centre electricity demand here could rise to 30% by 2030 “with their increasing demand outstripping development of new renewables and threatening [Ireland’s] carbon footprint”.
Outside the RDS, campaigners called on the next Government to end support for the "harmful" and "climate-wrecking data centre industry".
"Government policy has facilitated unchecked growth of data centres which has put our electricity system at huge risk, and defies our own climate laws," said Friends of the Earth campaigner Rosi Leonard.
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"Friends of the Earth is calling on all political parties to support a pause on connecting more data centres to the grid until the threats they pose have been removed."
Ms Leonard said that the energy needed to facilitate the growth of data centres in Ireland was "outpacing renewable power generation six times over".
"Despite their greenwashing efforts, data centres are in fact investing in massive on-site fossil fuel generation," she said.
Ms Leonard and her fellow campaigners said that the lack of robust policy and regulation around data centres “risks de-stabilising our entire energy transition at a huge cost to householders’ energy bills, our natural environment, and eco-systems”.
"Further data centre growth is pure insanity at a time when we need to be ditching filthy fossil fuels and bringing down emissions for any hope of a safe future for this planet.”
Ms Leonard urged the next government to prioritise clean, cheaper, and future-proofed renewables for homes and the public good, “not for companies to use Ireland as their data dumping ground”.
“We urgently need to ask who benefits from the unlimited expansion of one of the most energy-intensive industries on the planet, and why are Irish politicians in particular giving them a free pass to exploit our resources and energy systems?"
Planner and environmental activist from Limerick, Tom Spillane said that the recent strategic approach of development of data centres in regional areas was “of massive concern”.
“Most of these data centres are coupled with onsite gas generation which will supply their exponential energy demands, colossal water usage and just a handful of jobs when construction is completed — this is yet another example of the state facilitating environmental injustices in rural Ireland,” he said.
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