Australia’s GDP figures are meaningless when the boom in datacentres means destroying jobs and the climate

‘We either will need to massively increase our use of renewables and batteries or datacentres will effectively destroy our ability to reduce emissions to net zero,’ Greg Jericho writes. Photograph: Steven Markham/AAP

The March GDP figures, not for the first time, showed that the focus on economic growth seems rather foolish when you place it within the context of the climate crisis. While the economy did grow in the first three months of this year, the big driver was investment in datacentres, which a new report on Wednesday revealed is greatly increasing the risk to the climate and Australia’s environment.

You probably could do worse than say that the March GDP figures suggest Australia’s economic growth will “push up power prices, prolong the use of polluting coal power stations, increase gas generation, and derail the progress we are making towards our climate goals”.