Professor Hannah Daly:

I have released various public reports and analyses that examine the question of data centres and the Senator's framing that we are running just to stand still is absolutely correct. Over the past decade, the expansion in energy demand from data centres has basically matched our expansion of wind energy production, which means we are not cutting fossil fuels. The ultimate goal of the climate Act and carbon budgets is to limit fossil fuel and other sources of emissions rather than to expand renewables. Right now, the number of data centres is primarily growing by means of the use of fossil fuels. This goes back to Professor McMullin's overarching view that it is not sufficient simply to expand clean technologies and take clean energy measures. The major threat to carbon budgets and, as a consequence, the Paris Agreement in its entirety is the expansion of carbon-intensive and energy-intensive industries that do not have technical solutions. That data centres are concentrated so heavily in Dublin and across Ireland is a major warning for countries across the rest of the world that wants to expand data centres. They are connecting to the gas network because the electricity network is so constrained. Growing with fossil fuels, in the case of Dublin Airport or data centres, or growing our agrifood industry on the basis of growing carbon emissions, is just not compatible with our climate law.