Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 30 August 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Energy Supply and Security: Discussion

Photo of Alice-Mary HigginsAlice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister identified the wider factor. The energy crisis is taking place inside a climate crisis, which has not gone away and which is intensifying. He mentioned dependence on fossil fuels, which, of course, includes gas, with the single exception of green hydrogen, which is a minority option. Gas is a fossil fuel and one that is extremely volatile in terms of pricing as well as being dangerous in terms of the environment and the human rights risks that attach to gas as we have seen. This has been identified. It is still not clear how the policies we are discussing today are designed to address the energy crisis and the climate crisis. In that regard, I would like clarity around the position Ireland will take on 9 September, because it is not clear to me. We know Spain and Portugal pushed successfully for a separation in pricing on gas and electricity.

They made a situation whereby electricity prices coming from renewables, such as solar in their case, would not be set according to the price of gas, and that has been estimated by analysts that the measure will lead to a 20% to 30% reduction in bills for 10 million Spanish customers. The measure also sends a very positive signal about renewables as something more reliable and better.

Spain, Portugal, Greece, France, Italy and Belgium are calling for the decoupling of gas and electricity prices. They will bring that position to the meeting. I am concerned that the Minister has made references to the UK and our existing gas contracts. Will Ireland be on the side of that necessary separation or will we see the same thing, which unfortunately the Irish Commissioner contributed to, with the blurring of the taxonomy whereby gas is getting blended into the space in terms of sustainables?

I am quite concerned about one of the comments made by Mr. Gannon today in which he seemed to include gas under renewables, which we know it is not. He mentioned renewables, the need to intensify renewables, and he mentioned not just wind and solar but also gas infrastructure. In that context, where will Ireland be in that meeting? I ask because this issue is really important. It is more important than solely just us and concerns consumers. In that context, when Mr. Gannon previously spoke to this committee, he indicated that the CRU would be happy to provide analysis on the Energy Charter Treaty but it had never been asked to do so by the Department or the Minister. Given that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, has recognised the Energy Charter Treaty and specifically named it as why we may not be able to make the green transition, and now there is the danger of energy policy in terms of those emergency interventions that Ms von der Leyen is calling for, the Energy Charter Treaty represents a risk not just in terms of being able to make the right policy decisions on climate but the right policy decisions for the people of the countries in terms of energy usage, energy security and public need.

I want to discuss the data centre issue very briefly because it is crucial. Demand reduction has been mentioned a lot, but actually the measures that are coming in and that we have heard outlined are largely things such as change of use of time of day, which is the idea of doing washing and cooking late at night, and the idea that emergency or backup generators will come in, including, for example, in the new Amazon centres, which we know are diesel generators. What is the actual demand side reduction - not demand flexibility around surge, particular moments of busyness, the bad day or the day the wind does not blow, which we hear about a lot, but actual demand reduction? I ask because I am concerned we still seem to be okay with a policy where the equivalent of 140,000 households is being added in terms of energy demand by data centres each year. On the phrase that a 9% increase is not that bad for a prosperous, growing and sophisticated western economy, why is it okay for us to have plans for increased energy demand, which will rely on things like diesel backup generators and emergency extra gas imports, when we know from the IPCC that in fact it is these western economies, and indeed the big companies, the very large profitable companies that are building data centres, which should take the first hit when it comes to energy reduction in demand, given that the rest of the world has had the worst impacts of climate change? How can we justify that idea of expanding demand? An option the CRU specifically had in front of it last year - one of its own options, option No. 2 - when considering the options on data centres was not to have any more connections until safe and secure connection could be guaranteed. The CRU chose not to take that option. I would like to know why that option was not taken.

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