Specify the amount of greenhouse gases generated by data consumption: this is the new information that operators will be required to provide each month in 2022. An idea that is causing an outcry in the digital sector.
New controversy in sight concerning the impact of digital technology on the environment and how to assess it. In the Official Journal of December 23, 2021, decree n ° 2021-1732 was published, which makes specialists in new technologies howl on social networks. According to this text, the provisions it contains must enter into force on January 1, 2022.
What is it about ? The decree is entitled: ” terms of information, by electronic communications operators (fixed and mobile access) on the quantity of data consumed within the framework of the provision of access to the network and its equivalent in greenhouse gas emissions “. Clearly, it is a question of imposing on the operators of enter the volume of carbon emissions generated by the consumption of data.
This decree complements a law that came into force in February 2020, called the Anti-Waste and Circular Economy Law (AGEC). It is in particular via this text that the repairability index was introduced (and its rating criteria, specified in a separate decree), which makes it possible to assess the ease of repair of a high-tech product, such as a smartphone.
In detail, the decree applies to operators and suppliers in the broad sense. They are asked to present to the subscriber:
- the type of subscription: fixed Internet or mobile Internet;
- the volume of data consumed: in gigabytes (GB), rounded to the unit, and, where applicable, accompanied by the words “estimated data”;
- the equivalent in greenhouse gas emissions: in grams of CO equivalent2 (g CO2 eq2), rounded to the unit;
- the summary of the calculation methods used.
The decree does not say what is the methodology applied to perform these calculations, but points to the Ecological Transition Agency (ADEME), which depends on the Ministry of Ecology. This indicator should be based on ” the actual volume of data consumed », Noted by the operator, to tell the Internet user what he generates in greenhouse gases by accessing the network.
” This information may be accompanied by a graphic representation. ” and ” may also appear on invoicing documents »Adds the decree. They can also be found in the personal space of each subscriber and must be updated every month. Each monthly information will obviously relate to the past month (in December, you will see November).
At first glance, this information seems to be of interest for a more detailed understanding of the individual impact that one has, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, by using his Internet connection to consult his emails, read an article. video, view a website or play video games. After all, the reflection crossed in particular the suggestions of the Citizen’s Convention on the climate.
A decree that ignites the IT world
But the problem here is how to establish these measures, which are based on a contested premise and questionable calculation rules. This is illustrated on Twitter by Pierre Beyssac, computer engineer, known for being both the spokesperson for the Pirate Party and for having co-founded Géat, a domain name registration and hosting service. web.
” Fed up with the anti-tech sorcerer’s apprentices who get nothing out of our professions, destroy everything they touch through Luddism, and grow fat thanks to public aid by surfing on anti-tech fashion [en l’opposant à] ecology before passing absurdities into public policy “, he lets go on December 23 on Twitter, in reaction to the publication of the decree.
Pierre Beyssac’s reaction is all the more virulent as the person concerned has made every effort to demonstrate, from March 9, 2021, ” intellectual scam That constitutes the environmental impact of the volume of data, in a long development published on his personal site. A warning that did not prevent this decree from being taken, almost ten months later.
Pierre Beyssac observes that a similar attempt had been ruled out in a previous text, the law aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of digital technology in France (REEN law), before being ejected ” at the last moment “. She’s sort of coming back through the window, after finding the door closed. ” Nobody saw it coming He adds.
In his text, Pierre Beyssac was already alarmed by these counterproductive and simplistic approaches. ” There is an urgent need to develop more rigorous methodologies allowing a useful targeting of the efforts to be made […]. Without it, we run the risk of wasting our efforts, our time and worse, missing a target that is already difficult to achieve.e. “
Calculation methodology problem
The main problem here is how to model what is generated in terms of CO2 relative to the volume of data consumed, assuming that an equivalence can be established. And this is precisely what many stakeholders point out, who warn that a count of the volume of CO2 is in practice very difficult, if not impossible to give.
” In principle, the energy impact of a service via the Internet is the total electricity consumption divided by the number of work units. But it becomes a lot of fun when you consider the infinite tree structure of subcontractor, partner and forwarding services. “, relief Jean-Marc Liotier, a computer scientist working for an operator. ” It is absolutely impossible because it depends on different factors “, add Julien Wajsberg, developer for Mozilla.
Others point a very limited vision: why in this case not add the carbon footprint of the manufacturing of hosting infrastructure (servers, cables, electricity, transport, displacement of technologies, etc.), but also the cost in carbon dioxide of the software manufacturing… which again promises controversial methodological choices.
Pierre Beyssac predicted a ” linear approximation “Between the CO2 and the Go, even then ” that we know that it has nothing to do with reality (almost all fixed costs) “. In all cases, it will be a ” metric CO2 / Go canister “, according to him. He points out in passing practices already seen in certain think tanks specializing in climate issues, but criticized on the methodology.
ADEME’s methodology is described in an article of December 14 and consists of two multiplications, the first for mobile networks and the second for fixed networks.
- Carbon footprint (in gCO2e / month) = Quantity of data consumed by the user (in GB / month) x Increasing average ratio representative of the impact of the “France Mobile Network” (in gCO2e / Go), knowing that at 1er January 2022 this value is estimated at 49.4gCO2e / Go (gram CO2 equivalent per Gigabyte).
- Carbon footprint (in gCO2e / month) = Average impact of the fixed Internet consumption of a French person (in gCO2e / month), knowing that on 1 January 2022 this value is estimated at 4.1 kgCO2e / month per subscriber.
This method of calculation is rightly denounced by Pierre Beyssac and others, because it is not based on any source justifying the choice of values, their number and their relation. ” Two unsupported simplistic multiplications (formula dismantled x times), one based on consumption (mobile access), the other on a flat-rate basis (fixed access). The evaluation literally came out of the hat “, he continues on Twitter.
Others noted the paradox of this decree, which could require either the installation of new infrastructures to manage this calculation, or, in any case, require the mobilization of a certain computing power in installations already in place to establish this estimate. This is what the alternative operator Scani points out ironically, in his tweet of December 23.
Certainly, Scani admits that it will be virtualized, that is to say operated by a machine already in place, but it will still be necessary to allocate energy to these operations: ” Virtualized or not, it takes system resources to get the statistics out, especially if we want the right ones, and we don’t necessarily want to bring our supervision to its knees while extracting the data. »And in some cases, this means install hardware Nevertheless.
Lawyer Alexandre Archambault, who specializes in networks, signals that in the event of non-compliance with the provisions of the decree, the possibility of a formal notice emerges, followed, if nothing changes by then, by the opening of a sanction procedure by the regulator telecoms (Arcep), taking into account the Post and Electronic Communications Code.
But above all, the interested warns a side effect to say the least ironic to be expected: the case of the subscriber who would like to recover all this information on paper, which also requires a whole swarm of peripheral pollution: the printer in operation, the sheet of paper , routing mail to the letterbox, maybe with a car, etc.
This trajectory, in any case, worries. Because beyond the questionable value of this information, taking into account the much criticized bases on which it rests, certain observers wonder if this does not hide the desire to leave the unlimited fixed Internet through a carbon tax. Several Internet users fear this scenario (such as here, here and the, but also this tweet, this one and that one)
After all, the idea has only recently appeared in the public debate.
