Dr. Patrick Bresnihan:

On mitigation, things have been proposed and there are initiatives and projects under way, such as the district heating scheme in Tallaght involving Amazon. In other cities, particularly Denmark, district heating has been pursued at a larger scale with more data centre developments. The other part of it would be renewable energy and getting data centres to build renewable energy developments. Those schemes, not just in Ireland but also in places like Denmark, have tended to be relatively small. They are like pilot schemes and one could cynically say they are just greenwashing because they get a lot of attention but the extent to which they or renewable energy investments offset or account for the huge energy demands of data centres is minimal.

There are technical solutions. One part of it is where the emphasis lies and who is responsible. In the case of data centres, if they are locating here they should be required to do certain things such as providing their own energy or developing district heating systems. That is not in place and it would need to be put in place because if it is voluntary, it will not happen.

I am glad that Dr. Tienhaara made this point but there cannot constantly be this emphasis on technological solutions. Technological solutions create other problems. Even if we only focus on things like emissions, renewable energy carries its own burdens, whether it is lithium for battery storage or building wind turbines on peat bogs which are not adequate. We need to look at technological and technical solutions but we also have to be aware that they have social and environmental implications and that they are always bound up with questions of who is responsible.