In response to the news Queensland and the Northern Territory will be allowed to power data centres with coal and gas, Australian Conservation Foundation CEO Adam Bandt said:
"Fracked gas data centres will be a nightmare, but the Prime Minister appears to be backing them.
"The Northern Territory government wants to use fracked gas from the Beetaloo Basin to power energy-hungry data centres, a move that will ignite a climate bomb and put artesian water at risk.
"We urge the parliament not to capitulate to the polluters. The forthcoming legislation must rule out coal and gas-fuelled data centres.
"Fracking risks polluting artesian water, releases climate-heating methane into the atmosphere and damages subterranean and above-ground ecosystems - sometimes irreversibly.
"Gas fracked in the Beetaloo by Santos and other miners will fast track climate collapse.
"Some parts of the Northern Territory are predicted to be unliveable within 40 years due to climate change.
"If you want to build a data centre in Australia - regardless of which state or territory it is in - you should be compelled to build the renewables to service it."
Photo: Beetaloo Basin, Gudanji Country, by Tom Kinsman
