A recent report suggests that Ireland holds the potential of being a front-runner in global efforts to reduce carbon emissions from data centres. However, it emphasises that this can only be accomplished with increased governmental investment in climate technology development and its respective companies.
PwC Ireland and SustainabilityWorks, the co-authors of this report, insist that enhancing support for these tech firms could assist Irish authorities in meeting their rigorous carbon-cutting objectives. This approach would also spur job creation and stimulate economic growth.
The authors point out that data centres – notorious power consumers notorious in Ireland due to their significant power usage and impact on national carbon goals – consume 21% of Ireland’s energy consumption even while the world average is just about 1%.
The report underscores the Republic’s unique positioning to effect change given our growing dependence on data centres due to increasing digitalisation globally.
Instead of sidestepping these challenges, the authors propose that Ireland capitalise on this opportunity to lead the charge towards achieving net-zero energy usage in data centres, thus also contributing to policy making discussions on curbing the carbon footprint of major tech firms.
The report quotes Systemiq Capital and Wake-Up Capital, two environmental tech investment entities, who feel that the Republic could uniquely facilitate major stakeholder engagement to devise transparent solutions to these issues.
Based on these findings, the report encourages the Republic’s focus on areas where it has a competitive edge, rather than trying to handle the decarbonisation issues of the economy as a whole. This might involve innovative approach to energy and carbon management relevant to data centres, the development of sustainable aviation fuels and groundbreaking methods of transitioning the food, agriculture and land use sectors towards decarbonisation.
According to a report, the Republic’s robust venture capital framework, which is able to identify potential in association with universities, has played a vital role in the triumph of native financial and medicinal technology establishments. PwC points out that this model could be utilised to concentrate resources on climate tech, a strongly demanded global solution to reduce emissions and adjust to the effects of climate change.
The report, however, alerts that adequate efforts are not being made to channel state and private contributions towards climate technology. This area should be acknowledged as an independent economic sector, suggest researchers. David McGee, PwC Ireland’s environmental, social and governance leader, states that currently the climate aspect is not sufficiently highlighted as an economic prospect.
By acknowledging and providing targeted backing, we could bolster the existent solid foundation. Investments and support in this sector would not just offer financial benefits to the state, but would also help in accomplishing our national Climate Action Plan, McGee adds.
Being on the brink of a significant opportunity in the climate tech sector, Ireland, if acting decisively and embracing climate innovation, could emerge as a significant player in this burgeoning field, says Aideen O’Hora, co-founder of SustainabilityWorks. Hence there is a need of the right focus and investments, insists O’Hora.