"Conflating" energy consumption with energy generation, which here in the real world is still predominantly carbon intensive? I wouldn't say there's much conflating going on, rather, recognition of the reality we live in.
It's addressing the problem from the wrong end. If you replace your generating capacity with non-carbon sources then energy consumption is no problem. If you don't, you have a problem even at the current level of consumption, and that problem continues to have the same solution.
It's not even impossible for increased consumption to lower carbon emissions, because to meet the higher peak demand you may need to add more generating capacity. When the new capacity is renewables or nuclear then it adds no carbon emissions during peak usage times and allows for a reduction in carbon emissions whenever the grid is at less than full capacity by assigning the remaining load to the new plants and spinning down the legacy fossil fuel ones that would otherwise have been used.
Wrong. Currently most electricity is generated from sources that release co2. Also, all the energy used in computation is ultimately released as heat anyways!