The ICT Sector: An enabler of climate change solutions or part of the problem?

This blog post is based on prior research carried out for an undergraduate dissertation entitled ‘The ICT Sector: An enabler of climate change solutions? A business response examining the risks, strategies, challenges and opportunities of US MNCs invested in Europe’.

The pervasiveness of climate change as a global environmental concern is unequivocal. Climate action is Goal 13 of the UN’s sustainable development goals and is intrinsically linked to the remaining 16. Less clear however, is the role that the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector plays in this crisis. In particular, within this sector, US Multi-National Corporations are often criticised as contributing significantly to the problem. 

Interviews carried out in July 2020 with senior representatives from Apple, Google, IBM, Johnson Controls, Microsoft and three further companies explored the gap that exists between this sector’s perceived and actual impact on the planet. These companies, due to the unrelenting focus they place on their climate agenda and innovation, are in fact providing solutions to not only minimise their own carbon footprint, but also that of society. A report predicting that ICT emissions will decrease over time estimates that this sector’s solutions will save 9.7x more emissions than they produce by 2030. As an example, Johnson Controls achieved a 64% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity from 2002 to 2019.

This sector has designed technology specifically to better understand and address climate change. The World Bee Project, partnering with Oracle, uses data to address threats to our bee population which is intrinsically linked to our ecosystem and thus climate change. Similarly, Microsoft is building a planetary computer which aims to monitor, model and manage the planet’s natural resources. Google has developed a carbon-intelligent computing platform that allows for non-urgent compute tasks – like adding a new word to Google Translate – to be carried out when power sources such as wind and solar are most abundant, rather than using up carbon energy. Apple has developed a disassembly robot, ‘Daisy’, that takes iPhones apart and recovers valuable materials then able to be re-used. A plethora of cases such as these demonstrate how the ICT sector is providing climate solutions to help society as a whole.  

This all sounds very positive but is there another side to the story? The short answer is no. The long answer is one that consistently emerges as a controversial topic, and is the concern surrounding the energy use of data centres. Mark Lange from Microsoft explains that such questions often begin with the premise that ‘wow, data centres are big energy users’. Whilst they are unquestionably energy intensive, dangerous misconceptions exist which should be debunked. A report published by Sciencecontradicts the belief that a rapid rise in demand for data centre services equates to a rise in their energy use. It found that, between 2010 and 2018, the energy used by data centres rose by only 6% globally despite the huge data centre usage increase of 550%. In other words, whilst internet traffic and data centre workload have skyrocketed, data centre energy use has remained nearly flat. So, before blindly critiquing data centres, it is vital to consider that despite greater powering of applications than ever before, they still account for only about 1% of global electricity consumption. It is due to the efforts of the ICT sector to improve energy efficiency that growth in data centre usage and energy consumption has been decoupled. Google, for instance, delivered in 2019 around seven times as much computing power with the same amount of electrical power than in 2014 and, since 2017, it matched 100% of the electricity consumption from its operations with wind and solar power. Additionally, as Lange from Microsoft questions, ‘well what’s the alternative?’. The alternative is what we were all using before data centres: mountains of inefficient servers found in the basement of every company. Our modern economy both relies on and wants more and more computing power and centralising this power in data centres requires less energy and cost and thus is more efficient than the alternative. 

Current estimations show that ICT represents a mere 1.4% of global GHG emissions. A report states that in a worst-case scenario, this could rise to 23% in 2030 yet this would mainly be dependent on a lack of electricity efficiency improvements. Even if emissions do rise as digital becomes all-encompassing, it is important to recognise that so too will the benefits. For instance, our food production system is responsible for one-quarter of global GHG emissions and this excludes feeding the ten billion people expected to be living on our planet by 2050. Here, IBM’s Watson Decision Platform for Agriculture is an example of technology emerging as a solution: the combination of AI technology and weather data will allow farmers to use their land and resources more efficiently, thus reducing the GHG emissions emitted per crop yield. Additionally, an Ericsson report shows that 80% of the ICT sector’s footprint could be reduced if renewable energy were the source of all electricity consumption. Aptly, technology companies now have a proven place as top buyers of renewables, accounting for around half of global corporate procurement. ICT has already begun decoupling its growth with its carbon footprint and by continuing to prioritise energy efficiency and renewable energy, it is not unreasonable to believe they will be able to offset their footprint with their handprint. There remains an urgent need to decarbonise the world, and it is important to adequately quantify ICT’s impact in order to recognise and drive forward, rather than hinder, its enabling potential. 

Written by Laura Chaney

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