Page 22 - Turning digital technology innovation into climate action

Turning digital technology innovation into climate action

Chapter 2. Maximising the potential

opportunities and minimising
the downsides of ICTs

The ICT sector is a contributor to, and a part of, the potential response to climate change. ICTs have
an environmental impact at each stage of their life cycle due to the energy consumed during their
production, distribution and use. According to some estimates, ICTs alone are directly responsible
for 1.4 per cent of global GHG emissions and 3.6 per cent of electricity consumption. The wider ICT
1
ecosystem used about 1 700 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2015, or about 8 per cent of the global
total. The use of hazardous substances and scarce and non-renewable resources in production and
2
the generation of e-waste are also part of the environmental load of ICTs.

2.1 The E-Waste Challenge
The growth in Internet of Things (IoT) enabled devices, including the consumer hand-held products
that keep us connected, is becoming more widespread as a means of increasing efficiency, lowering
costs, saving time and (in some cases) combatting climate change – especially through the localization
of the information-renewable energy nexus. Single devices with single or limited functionality are
being replaced by devices with multiple functionality. For example, one mobile phone can now be
connected to multiple electronics that are wired to different IoT infrastructures. According to British

1 Bergmark, Pernilla. ‘Halving Global Emissions by 2030 through Exponential Climate Action and Digital Technologies.’
International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 13 May 2019, www .itu .int/ en/ ITU -T/ climatechange/ symposia/ 201905/
Documents/ 3 _Pernilla _Bergmark .pdf.
2 Andrae, Anders S.G. ‘Total Consumer Power Consumption Forecast.’ Huawei, Oct. 2017, www .researchgate .net/
publication/ 320225452 _Total _Consumer _Power _Consumption _Forecast.

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