What is a digital carbon footprint?

According to one estimate, around 5.3 billion people worldwide will have internet access in 2022. Every single search query, every streamed video and every type of cloud computing, carried out billions of times, is responsible for an ever-increasing global demand for energy - and therefore also for rising CO₂ emissions. The majority of the digital footprint is caused by video streaming due to the large amounts of video data. In comparison, using a search engine or sending text-only emails only has a minor impact.

Due to constant technological progress, efficiency improvements, changing consumer habits and substitution and summation effects, it is difficult to precisely quantify the exact share of digital emissions in global CO₂ emissions. Various studies estimate the share to be between 1.5 and 4 per cent, which equates to the emissions of the entire aviation industry.

What are direct effects

Direct effects include the environmental impact caused by the production, use and disposal of digital technologies. The information and communication technology sector is currently responsible for around 1.5 - 4 % of global greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions are mainly caused by networks, data centres and end devices.

What are indirect effects?

Indirect effects refer to changes in processes through digital applications that can reduce or increase environmental impacts in other sectors. For example, information and communication technology applications in Switzerland could potentially save up to 50 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents by 2030 by enabling more efficient processes and technologies.

Overestimation of climate protection contributions: The positive effects of digitalisation on climate protection are often overestimated. Additional digital uses are often not sufficiently taken into account.

1. High energy consumption: Digital technologies such as data centres, the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain require enormous amounts of electricity. Although digitalisation makes many processes more efficient, the increasing energy consumption often leads to a high climate impact.
    
2. Resource consumption for devices: Smartphones, computers and servers require rare raw materials and energy for their production. The devices often have a short lifespan, which increases waste and emissions.
    
3. Indirect emissions due to usage habits: Digital innovations often lead to people using new services more intensively - be it through video streaming, cloud computing or working from home. This can increase energy consumption and even create new sources of emissions.
    
4. Difficulty of accounting: The effects of digitalisation on the climate are difficult to calculate because they are often complex and indirect. It is difficult to say whether the positive effect (e.g. savings through more efficient processes) actually exceeds the negative effect (e.g. energy consumption).

• Reduce streaming: Video streaming accounts for 75% of global data traffic. Production of the end device (smartphone, laptop, TV), internet network, usually several data centres and servers/routers involved, energy consumption using the end device during streaming. Downloading is much less energy-intensive in comparison. 
   
• Playing songs as audio instead of streaming as video via YouTube or watching the video in a lower resolution Use devices for longer: The average useful life of a smartphone in Switzerland is just two years, that of a television five years.
• Dispose of old devices correctly.
   
• Empty your e-mail box regularly to reduce data storage.
   
• Store data locally and use the cloud as little as possible (applies to private individuals, for companies with an ‘on premise’ server structure the opposite is true).
   
• Use WLAN networks instead of mobile networks.
   
• Use a renewable electricity mix (photovoltaics, hydropower, wind, biomass).

_{Quellen:
[1] Estimate of the number of Internet users worldwide for the years 2005 to 2023
[2] Lean ICT Report
[3] Am I ruining the climate with digitalisation? 
[4] Factcheck: What is the carbon footprint of streaming video on Netflix?
[5] Digital media consumption and its environmental impact} 

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