5,503 of 10,000 signatures

To Eamon Ryan, Minister for Communications, Climate Action, Environment, Energy and Natural Resources

Petition Text

Data Centres are making the climate crisis worse. They drive up carbon emissions and need extraordinary amounts of water and power to operate. There are already 70 in Ireland, and many more in the planning pipeline, making Ireland a data dumping ground for Big Tech. [1]

Why is this important

We all deserve to have the resources we need to live a decent life and to protect our children's futures.

Data centres consume colossal amounts of energy and water. If all the applications for data centres are approved, they will account for 70% of electricity demand by 2030. [2]

Massive corporations like Amazon, Google and Facebook are behind many of the data centres being built. [3] They are using us to dump data, while future generations will pay the price for their greed.

What we want the Government to do

Ban any new data centres until a national public consultation on data centre policy is carried out.

No new data centres should be built unless they:

  • Shift from burning fossil fuels to power the data centre, either on or off-site;
  • Invest in renewable energy generation;
  • Alter the timing of their energy use so that it supports a decarbonised grid and doesn't force the grid to invest in fossil energy;
  • Invest in their own storage capacity to draw down electricity when there is enough wind or other renewable energy on the grid relative to demand;
  • Avoid “mining” of bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies because of the huge energy resources required.

You can read more about dirty data centres in our blogpost here.

NOTES

[1] Not Here Not Anywhere: Data Centres & The Phoenix Magazine: Green Light for Ennis' 'Code Red' Data Centre?

[2] CRU consultation on Data Centre measures & Project Allende: Data centres, Big Data & Ireland's Energy Crisis

[3] Irish Independent: Regulator proposes data centre curb after new power supply risk warning

[4] TheJournal.ie: Opinion: Ireland's green energy plans have a big tech data centre problem & The Guardian: Big tech’s pro-climate rhetoric is not matched by policy action, report finds

[5] Government of Ireland: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021

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