Climate Campaigners call on next Government to ban new Data Centres which are driving up demand for fossil fuels

Demonstrations today at DataCentres Ireland conference in RDS, Dublin, against expansion of the “harmful” industry

Climate campaigners, including Friends of the Earth Ireland, are demanding a moratorium on new Irish Data Centres which are driving up demand for highly damaging fossil fuels.

The campaigners are demonstrating at today’s (Wednesday Nov 20th) DataCentres Ireland Conference at the RDS, and calling for an end to further Government supports for the climate-wrecking data centre industry.

Friends of the Earth Ireland today urged all political parties and general election candidates to support a moratorium on data centre connections which are already soaking up 21% of Ireland’s national energy, which is in turn driving up gas demand. This compares to the European average of 2% of energy for data centre connections.

Rosi Leonard, Data Centre campaigner at Friends of the Earth Ireland, said

“We are a complete outlier in Europe in this regard. Government’s policy has facilitated unchecked growth of data centres which has put our electricity system  at huge risk, and defies our own climate laws. 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.”  

She added: “The energy needed to facilitate the growth of data centres in Ireland is outpacing renewable power generation six times over. Despite their greenwashing efforts, data centres are in fact investing in massive on-site fossil fuel generation. 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 appealed to the next Government to prioritise clean, affordable and future-proofed renewables for homes. “This is about the public good, not about big tech. Neither our energy system nor our decarbonisation commitments were planned to serve the needs of one industry. We cannot continue to let corporate interests ignore climate law and the Paris Agreement.” 

She said the time has come for an end to the runaway expansion of the data centre industry which has little regard for  pollution or consumption limits. The lack of robust policy and regulation risks de-stabilising our entire energy transition at a huge cost to householders’ energy bills, our natural environment and eco-systems. 

“In the last 3 years Data centre demand has grown more than 15 times faster than electricity from all other sources – homes, vehicles, industry. Data centres are driving up gas demand, and investing in massive on-site fossil fuel generation. The only people benefitting from data centre growth are big tech corporations and their shareholders.”

She said: “The next Government must prioritise clean, cheaper, and future-proofed renewables for homes and the public good, not for companies to use Ireland as their data dumping ground. At a time when we are seeing climate breakdown across the globe, 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.” 

Zoë Lawlor, Chairperson of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign said: "The Irish state has serious questions to answer over the ethics and human rights implications of Data Centre expansion in Ireland, and how that storage space is being used and managed. Ireland exports a considerable amount of data storage space to Israeli entities. How is it possible that our government is still exporting ICT services and cloud storage space to Israel while at the same time, it has committed to joining South Africa's ICJ case against Israel for committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. When it comes to Israel, the government continues to prefer empty platitudes over taking real and impactful action."

Tom Spillane, planner and environmental activist from Limerick commented: “The recent strategic approach of development of Data Centres in regional areas is 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. We are calling for a legally binding nationwide moratorium on Data Centre growth now.”

ENDS