What will be the environmental footprint of digital technology in France by 2030 and 2050? After drawing up the current carbon footprint last year, Arcep and Ademe, respectively the telecoms regulatory authority and the ecological transition agency, got down to this prospective work.
Unsurprisingly, the environmental debt is expected to grow in the years to come. By 2030, if digital uses continue to progress at the current rate – i.e. data traffic multiplied by six and the number of devices increasing by nearly 65% - the carbon footprint of digital technology in France should increase by 45% compared to 2020 to reach 25 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (Mt CO2eq).
By 2050, if nothing is done to reduce the environmental footprint of digital technology, it could triple this time, still taking 2020 as the reference year. Of course, digital makes it possible to reduce the environmental impacts of other sectors such as transport with teleworking, but the expected multiplication of the number of equipment and, in particular, of connected objects, leads to this negative balance.
To measure its impact, the report has commonly divided digital technology into three components: user equipment – televisions, smartphones, computers, etc. -, data centers and network infrastructures, fixed or mobile, which connect users to each other and to the centers. of data, also called datacenters.
The manufacture of terminals weighs on their carbon footprint
However, these three components do not represent the same carbon weight. 79% of the digital footprint comes from our equipment, around 16% from data centers and 5% from networks. Another preconceived idea that has been challenged: it is not so much the time spent in front of screens, although it has increased sharply over the past two decades, that weighs the most in the balance. More than the use of equipment, and therefore their electricity consumption, it is their manufacture that is mainly responsible for their carbon footprint, up to 80%.
“In other words, even before we use our latest shiny new smartphone, television or computer, it has already produced almost 80% of the greenhouse gas emissions that it will emit during its (too short) life.” From the extraction of rare earths to the assembly of components, the manufacture of these terminals is, in fact, a high emitter of CO2. Their distribution, however regularly accomplished by air in addition to maritime transport, seems in comparison anecdotal (1%), notes the report.
Smartphones (14.3%), televisions (13.7%), laptops (12.4%) and desktops (10%) are the main drivers of digital emissions, ahead of tablets (4.7%) ), small connected objects (3.8%), printers (3.5%), computer screens (3.4%), video game consoles (2.6%) or TV boxes ( 2%).
An environmental footprint that is in no way virtual
While digital “dematerializes” a certain number of services, it is also “a factor in the depletion of certain metals and minerals, as can be in other industries”. For example, a French person generates, for his digital uses alone, nearly 300 kilos of waste per year. A total that includes electrical and electronic waste as well as waste related to the extraction of raw materials.
The Ademe and Arcep report offers several levers of action to gain in “digital sobriety”. This involves reducing or at least stabilizing the number of devices by pooling them or using refurbished products. It is also a question of extending the lifespan of equipment by one or two years “thanks to their better design, their better repairability, their systematic recycling at the end of their life and the adaptation of their functionalities to the real needs of the ‘user.”
In terms of eco-design, the optimization of the code of websites and digital services and the management of data flows limits their energy impacts. The report also recalls certain eco-gestures such as automatically switching from a mobile network to wifi when possible. Another track: gradually replace the most resource-intensive equipment, such as televisions in favor of video projectors.
Four possible scenarios
Based on the models of society that Ademe has designed as part of its Transition(s) 2050 study aimed at achieving the country’s carbon neutrality, the report outlines four prospective scenarios. The “Frugal Generation” and “Territorial Cooperation” scenarios subject the digital sector, like the rest of the economy, to major sobriety actions.
The “Green technologies” and “Repair bet” scenarios assume more or less strong digital growth and count on the indirect positive effects of new technologies on other sectors of activity to offset the increase in their emissions. . For example, the smart building concept makes it possible to optimize the energy consumption of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.
These last two scenarios should not be favored by supporters of responsible digital technology since they increase CO2 emissions by 183% and 372% compared to – 45% and + 32% for the first two. The report concludes by recalling that to achieve the objective of the Paris Agreement in 2050, digital must play its part. This implies a collective effort by all stakeholders: users, device and equipment manufacturers, content and application providers, network and data center operators.
