Gino Kenny warns climate plan flawed on cars, retrofits, data centres
Gino Kenny criticised this environmental plan, saying it contains serious flaws and over-relies on private companies and individual measures. He called for collective solutions, questioned a target of a million electric cars and warned about retrofit costs, offshore energy governance and data centre electricity use.
Main criticisms
Gino Kenny told the minister the plan is flawed in several respects, including too much reliance on private companies and on individual behavioural change. He questioned whether the plan and others around the world are willing to tackle what he called "environmental vandalism" and argued people demand radical change.
Public transport and car culture
Kenny highlighted the absence of free public transport in the plan and said the notion of a million electric cars undermines efforts to move away from car culture. He argued for collective measures and said relying on individual car ownership is likely to fail as a strategy to reduce congestion and emissions.
Retrofitting and costs
He warned that home retrofitting is prohibitively expensive for many households and suggested models where estate companies or collective arrangements would carry out retrofits to reduce costs and increase uptake.
Offshore energy and data centres
Kenny raised concerns about offshore renewable energy governance, noting the prominent role of the ESB and the need to scrutinise its involvement. He also flagged data centres as an "elephant in the room" because projected electricity use from them could be enormous and the plan lacks mitigation measures.
Closing assessment
While reaffirming a shared desire for a better environment, Gino Kenny said the plan must address these weaknesses before it can be considered an adequate response to the climate and environmental challenges he described.
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Thank you, Chair. Minister, it is in everybody's interest that the environment we live in is sustainable and we can cohabitate with the natural world and the animal world. It is in all our interests that the damage done and the potential damage that will be inflicted on this planet. We have come across environmental issues and social issues in the last seven or eight years where young people have engaged in relation to that. I would make a comparison between the 1960s and what is going on now in relation to civil rights. That is the kind of cutting edge where people are at at the moment. I think people demand change and they demand radical change. People will ask, are the governments in situ, including Ireland, are they in for radical change? That is a huge question mark, whether this plan and other plans want to challenge the environmental vandalism that has gone on on the planet. Now, this plan, I think, has flaws and a number of flaws in relation to private companies that are involved in the plan and also the kind of personal responsibility that comes with the over-reliance on environmental issues. There is no mention of free public transport. I think the idea of a million electrical cars. I mean, when I heard that first, I thought it was a joke. I will be honest, Richard, because we want to get away from car culture. We want to get away from congestion. People want to use public transport. So you have to look at this collectively rather than individually, because if you look at it individually, I think it will be doomed to failure. Also about retrofitting of homes. It is hugely costly for anybody in this state to get their home retrofitted. So there has to be a kind of estate company that will, you know, put the retrofit and put all the facilities in relation to at very cost places for people. There is also the issue of offshore renewable energy. One company that stands kind of over-shoulder is the ESB. The ESB has gone over 90 years. I think that has to be looked at in relation to offshore energy. And just another issue and an elephant in the room is in relation to data centres. I mean, data centres, if the projections are correct, will use up an enormous amount of electricity. It is quite kind of incredible the amount of energy that they will use. There is no kind of mitigating kind of circumstances in relation to this plan, how much they are going to use. And the enormous kind of damage that they will do now and in the future. So I think there are flaws, Minister, in this plan. We all, as I said from the start, we all want a better environment. But we have to kind of look at the flaws of this plan and other plans from other governments across the world. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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