When You Stay Online, the Earth Pays
By +SocialGood Connector Nashilongo Gervasius Nakale
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) consume a lot more energy than they can produce. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the United Nation’s arm which deals with ICTs, has acknowledged that “ICTs contribute to around 2–2.5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.”
In support of this global acknowledgment, other organizations are worried about this level of consumption and contribution. For instance, Climate Home News, a global news and analysis house, with interest in climate change politics and policy, has noted that billions of internet-connected devices could produce 3.5% of global emissions within 10 years and 14% by 2040.
The Guardian confirmed this in 2017 when it highlighted that “the communications industry could use 20% of all the world’s electricity by 2025, hampering attempts to meet climate change targets and straining grids as demand by power-hungry server farms storing digital data from billions of smartphones, tablets, and internet-connected devices grows exponentially.”
The energy being consumed by ICTs is estimated to surpass that which is consumed by the aviation and shipping industries by up to 14% by the year 2040. The South American organization, Colnodo, explains that “we have a tsunami of data approaching.”
With the 5th Generation (5G) of cellular network technology coming, Internet Traffic by Protocol (IP) traffic is expected to be much higher than previously estimated. This is because cars, machines, robots, and artificial intelligence are all being digitalized. This will lead to huge amounts of data being produced and stored in data centers.
The Role of Tech Companies:
There is no doubt that companies such as Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon own vast amounts of data, consequently making them some of the biggest consumers of energy. Supposedly these companies (and others in the tech field) use energy bought off-grid, making it difficult to account for by energy providers. They are also said to be alternating off-grid-power with solar and wind farms close to their centers. When petitioned by global environmental activists at Greenpeace and other environmental groups, these companies have promised to use renewable energy to power their data centers.
ICT’s Sustainable energy consumption:
In re-thinking sustainability in energy consumption, there are many ways ICTs could be steered towards sustainable energy consumption. This is, in fact, a necessity given the risks and the fact that, if left unattended, it can get out of control.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has declared that ICTs are part of the solution in deterring and minimizing carbon footprints as “they have the potential to assist in reducing emissions from other sectors of the economy.” This can be done by substituting travel with virtual meetings in some cases, therefore using ICTs to reduce fuel consumption. This “remote working” can play a key role in saving the environment by conserving energy, reducing fuel consumption and thus reducing pollution.
There is a need for policymakers to keep tabs on the volume of energy that ICTs consume. This can be achieved through the multi-stakeholder process where governments and various sectors (such as academic, civil society, private sector, technical sector together with international and intergovernmental organizations) collaborate to ensure cohesion in the policy addressing this matter. The end goal, in this case, would be policy recommendations related to climate change and environmental sustainability.
On one hand, ICTs can be transformed and developed to be more environmentally-sound and less carbon-intensive. On the other, ICT-enabled solutions (such as smart grids, smart buildings, smart logistics, and industrial processes) can move the world towards a more sustainable and energy-efficient future.
Twitter: Nashilongo Gervasius Nakale