Irish Examiner view: Ukraine is missing from US-Russia 'peace talks'
Russian president Vladimir Putin chairing a remote cabinet meeting in St Petersburg on Tuesday while his emissaries discussed the carve-up of Ukraine with their US counterparts in Riyadh. Picture: Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/Kremlin pool/AP
The first day of discussions between the US and Russia in Riyadh concluded yesterday with a flurry of briefings and press conferences afterwards, with participants seeking to depict themselves in the best possible light.
The war in Ukraine was an obvious focus and, on the American side, secretary of state Marco Rubio indicated that any peace deal relating to that war would have to be acceptable to both Ukraine and Europe.
Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov was upbeat, saying both sides had agreed that their negotiators would discuss the situation in Ukraine and adding that, in general, the meeting “went well”.
The absence of representatives from Ukraine and Europe from these discussions rather undercuts the positive signals.
Diplomacy is often a matter of parsing terms for their various meanings and different applications, but there is an almost laughable lack of subtlety in discussions about ending a war when only one of the combatants is involved — and the aggressor at that.
What may be more significant in the longer term is the other part of the brief those American and Russian negotiators can expect to receive.
According to Mr Rubio, they will discuss “economic and investment opportunities which will emerge from a successful end to the conflict in Ukraine”.
In that context, it is hardly a surprise to hear that the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, was also in Riyadh.
“We met members of the US delegation and we are discussing the reunification of certain projects in the economic sphere,” said Mr Dmitriev. “It is very important that the US companies for the first time heard this figure today. They lost $300bn [€287bn] because of leaving the Russian market.”
Those companies left because then US president Joe Biden was seeking to isolate Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine.
His successor is not only sidelining Ukraine from peace negotiations but seeking future business opportunities with Russia. That does not augur well for the future.
The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) is to require data centres in Ireland to disclose their carbon emissions and use of renewables under a new draft policy aimed at achieving “clarity” in this sector.
The CRU is also laying out detailed new policies governing how data centres connect to the national grid, which is a timely move.
Energy demand from data centres has risen from 5% of Ireland’s electricity in 2015, to 21% in 2023, and — according to the latest forecasts that demand will take up one third of our electricity by 2032 — a staggering jump in consumption in less than two decades.
The enormous amount of electricity being used by data centres is not the only challenge they present. For instance, many of the data centres are built in and around the Dublin area — which is not just a concern in terms of balanced development of the regions, but a concentration which puts immense pressure on the power supply network serving the capital.
By holding data centres to account on emissions and renewables the CRU is also highlighting a frequent criticism of these facilities — the amount of water they use. It is estimated that data centres in America, for instance, use up as much water as a city of 3m people.
In some ways, the data centre is a neat symbol of how the 21st-century economy works. Cited as a vital element of our modern infrastructure yet oddly opaque in its operation, the data centre, once constructed, is of marginal benefit in terms of employment — yet it consumes energy on a scale befitting an enormous nation-wide industry.
The CRU is now insisting that new data centres will be required to supply power to the national grid at times, which is also welcome on its merits. It also shows that a significant element of our national infrastructure cannot be run purely for the benefit of one small sector of the economy.
Former Cork lord mayor and TD for Cork North-Central Danny Wallace died earlier this week at the age of 82.
Mr Wallace had a long and distinguished career in politics at local and national levels. First elected for Fianna Fáil in the 1979 local elections, he became a TD in 1982 and was lord mayor of the city between 1985 and 1986.
He was minister of state at the Department of the Environment and Local Government from1997 and 2002, and he retired in 2007. One career highlight was his son Damian following in his father’s footsteps to serve as lord mayor from 1999 to 2000.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin described Mr Wallace as “a tireless advocate for the people of the northside of Cork City”, adding: “On a personal level, I will miss Dan greatly. As a young student, during the three general elections of the 1981-1982 period, I canvassed with Dan throughout Farranree, Gurranabraher and Blackpool.
“I remember well the mixed grills that Ethel [Mr Wallace’s wife] had ready for us when canvassing ended. I learned so much about the nuts and bolts of electoral politics from those days and from Dan.”
The Taoiseach’s tribute was an accurate one. Mr Wallace’s dedication and commitment to his constituents in Cork was immense, and they recognised that by keeping him in the Dáil for quarter of a century.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
