I move:
That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Planning and Development Act 2000 in order to restrict certain developments in fossil fuels infrastructure and high energy usage data centres, to remove some developments from listing as strategic development infrastructure projects, to revise the procedure for making applications directly to An Bord Pleanála and to ensure that regard be given to the State’s climate targets and commitments and to provide for related matters.
I am introducing the Planning and Development (Climate Emergency Measures) (Amendment) Bill for the second time in this Dáil term for one reason, which is the climate emergency. The crisis is real and deepening and our failure to halt it or even try to deal with it is not just blighting our lives and the lives of our grandchildren and future generations, it is blighting the lives of every person alive today and every creature that lives on this planet. It is here and it is happening now . Despite the crisis, however, global emissions from fossil fuels continue to rise, national emissions continue to rise, record high temperatures continue to be recorded and global extreme weather events are happening on an almost daily basis. The determination of global corporations and governments to continue with business as usual is beyond astonishing. It will take more than legislation to challenge this; it will take a mass movement across the globe.
This Bill points to two areas that we could address immediately. First, it introduces a real and effective ban on data centres in the planning process. When I last introduced a Bill like this just over a year ago, we were told we had about 70 data centres here, consuming 15% of the State’s electricity. We were told that it would be okay because we have an effective moratorium, that data centres are essential to the future, to a green transition and to climate action. We now know that there are over 80 data centres in the country, 82 to be precise, and another 40 in the planning process. Incredibly, 11 are not seeking permission to connect to the national electricity grid but to the national gas grid. A total of 14 centres are currently being constructed and the 40 for which planning permission has already been granted will consume more energy between them than the 82 that already exist. This is the very definition of madness. Data centres consume 18% of all electricity in this State. We cannot continue to allow this or any other sector to grow and demand such energy while at the same time lecturing ordinary people about their behaviour.
Money and big tech industries have managed to switch the narrative and go on the attack. They are pretending that they are not the problem but are, in fact, the solution. While the Green Party is in government and lectures ordinary people about their consumption and behaviour, it seems that data centres and big tech industry corporations get a free pass. The State at all levels bends over to facilitate them in whatever they want. From lax tax regimes to lax data regulations, to a free pass to consume whatever volume of water or energy they need, this State is the plaything of these global corporations. They are not the solution and they are not the key to decarbonising our economy. Yes, we all use social media and watch Netflix but the 80-plus data centres that are here are not to cater for our demands. They are here to monetise and commodify every interaction that we have online. The big tech corporations behind these centres jealously guard what they actually do as commercially sensitive. We simply do not have the facts on what proportion of what they do is essential for society or is actually needed. What we do know is that vast proportions are concerned not with human need but with corporate greed and the commercialisation, commodification and sale of every aspect of human existence. To paraphrase what the rich said many years ago about tax, climate change and climate change measures cannot be just for the little people. Behavioural change is not just for the little people, for workers and ordinary farmers. It must be for the big corporations, the tech giants, the global rich and their profits too.
The second thing this Bill provides for is a ban on any siting of liquified natural gas, LNG, terminals in the State. Incredibly, after three years of the Green Party being in government, we have the imminent threat of an LNG terminal being sited in either Cork or Shannon. Again, we need to challenge the narrative around gas and LNG head on. Gas is not a traditional, safe or bridge fuel and LNG terminals are not essential to energy security or our future energy needs.
The war in Ukraine is being used on multiple fronts by those who want to abandon neutrality and by the global fossil fuel industry. It has unleashed a veritable carbon bomb on the planet at the very moment when we need to reduce our fossil fuel use and extraction. The push to build LNG terminals here is very much part of that global push from the fossil fuel industry and whether it is fracked or non-fracked gas, commercial or non-commercial gas, it will unleash more emissions and deepen our dependency on fossil fuels at a key moment when we desperately need to do the exact opposite.
