Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment 194:

In page 92, between lines 14 and 15, to insert the following:

“(2A) In developing an e-Commerce compliance strategy, the Commission shall consult with appropriate persons with scientific expertise pertaining to the impact of e-Commerce on energy demand, carbon equivalent emissions and the environment more broadly.”.

There is a remit within the powers, functions and general responsibilities relating to climate change that is mentioned elsewhere, and the Minister will be aware I tabled amendments to further strengthen that. There are very significant environmental implications in respect of online activity and there are a number of choices. There is an increasing realisation that we will need a dovetailing of regulation of online activities and environmental regulations. Often, when we are debating issues such as data centres, for example, people will say that we have to be able to watch programmes and they ask about family photographs and so on, but, of course, the detail is that different kinds of activities carry a different impact. For example, although I forget the number of transatlantic jumbo jet flights involved in the training of algorithms, it is very important that the commission is able to incentivise that there would be best practice around transparency in terms of, say, the provision of lower carbon impact options, awareness of the fact different choices may have different environmental impacts and, in regard to the architecture underlying an online service, the environmental implications of different choices, practices and regulations on the environmental impact of that architecture. This is just to suggest that this is one of the areas where it would be appropriate for the commission to consult with persons who can give expertise in this area. As I understand it, given the very small size of the commission itself, it may not have that expertise internally.