Bethany Alvaro 
Last week, the federal government outlined the five expectations it hopes to see as a result of continued federal investment in data centres, including supporting the energy transition, using water sustainably, and strengthening local capabilities.
Joe Rafalowicz, head of climate and energy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, called these predictions “dangerous”, citing the environmental impacts of data centres, as well as concerns around big tech and ultra-capitalism.
“The frenzied build out of AI data centres in Australia is breathtaking, and following a dangerous US-style path where big tech corporations have carte blanche to drain local energy and water, and build new, polluting gas and diesel-powered plants to fuel their operations,” Rafalowicz said.
“Australia is following the US down the same dystopian path of unregulated AI data centre expansion, and overreach by big tech corporations that are, at best, driving significant climate and environmental harm, and at worst, generating illegal explicit images or supporting the US military to bomb civilians in Iran.
“These billionaire-run companies like Amazon, OpenAI, and Meta have time and again shown themselves to be morally impaired, with not even the best interests of humanity, let alone Australians, at the core of their decisions. Expecting them to just do the right thing because we ask nicely is baffling.”
Greenpeace is not the only group opposing the expansion of data centres in Australia; many independent environmental bodies, unions, and political parties have expressed their dissatisfaction in recent months.
Minister for Industry and Innovation Tim Ayres said the government’s expectation for data centres is to make it easier for technological investment in Australia, while “strongly supporting Australia’s clean energy transition and safeguarding our long-term water security”.
Greenpeace questions how this balance between economic growth and environmental sustainability will be struck, as large-scale data centres use up to 19 million litres of water for everyday cooling operations, with electricity demands for global data centres set to double over the next four years.
“The gas lobby has also now seized on data centre growth to justify extracting more gas, just as the world needs to rapidly phase out fossil fuels for energy security and to tackle the climate crisis,” Rafalowicz said.
“We have a short and closing window to choose a different path in Australia – without strong guardrails, we risk replicating the US pattern where big tech corporations make huge profits at the expense of locals.”