Artificial Intelligence
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-24
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Paul Murphy (PBP), Dublin South-West

The truth is that the expansion of data centres has deepened our dependence on fossil fuels. They have outpaced the renewable deployment. They have strained the grid. They have hoarded power connections. They have built gas generators on site. More and more are burning fossil fuels directly. They have stalled decarbonisation and deepened their dependence on fossil fuels.
Sometimes we see greenwashing statements by the likes of Google and others claiming that AI is going to be a net climate benefit and that we should not be worried about all the fossil fuels we are burning as a result of it. A new Friends of the Earth report finds that 74% of claims about AI's climate benefits are unproven, serving the profits of tech and fossil fuel industries while downplaying the major climate harms of generative AI.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-24