ICT Sector on the Way to Net Zero

Information and Communication Technology is a term that encompasses all forms of technology used to process, manage, and communicate information. ICT mainly includes the following:

• Information technology (IT), which comprises computers, hardware, software, and the related infrastructure used to process, store, and disseminate data.
• Telecommunication, which refers to all forms of telecommunications networks such as telephone lines, cellular networks, and satellite communication used for voice, data, and video transmission.
• Internet services, which encompass all services in connection with the internet, including web hosting, cloud computing, and online services.
• Broadcast media, which include technologies used to transmit information by radio, television, and other forms of media.
• Network technology, which is the hardware and software that enables network connectivity, communication, and the operation and management of enterprise networks.

All of these areas together produce roughly the same amount of emissions as all of the world’s air traffic or, put more precisely – we’ll solve the riddle – as much emissions as 100,000 flights each and every day.

One big question mark in ICT emissions is cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency, operates like many others on a proof-of-work algorithm, which requires Bitcoin miners to solve complex mathematical puzzles in order to validate transactions. That takes a lot of computing power and results in voracious electricity consumption. Moreover, if the number of miners increases, so does the complexity of the puzzles and the amount of energy consumption needed to solve them. The decentralization of cryptocurrencies makes it hard to estimate their energy consumption with precision, but it is widely believed that it could amount to as much as 240 terawatt hours per annum, more than the country of Australia’s annual electricity consumption.

Numerous companies operate data centers that process, store, and distribute enormous quantites of data. A good 85 data centers in Switzerland account for around 4% of the country’s total electricity consumption. And the amount of data won’t diminish in the future. This means that the trend is headed upward. Data center emissions are caused most of all by the equipment employed to cool servers. Data centers account for around 1% of energy-related emissions worldwide. However, there is plenty of potential to reduce data centers’ electricity consumption, which we’ll come to shortly.

The chances of achieving CO₂-neutrality look better in the ICT sector than in many other industries. The vast majority of ICT emissions result from electricity consumption. The ICT sector accounts for 4% to 6% of global electricity use. The eco-friendliness of ICT therefore depends greatly on the electricity mix used to operate systems and equipment. The math is plain and simple: the more electricity derived in the future from renewable sources, the more sustainable the ICT sector will become. But that alone is not enough, at least not in the near term.

More aggressive actions to reduce emissions are needed instead. One way to cut emissions is to improve the energy efficiency of data center cooling systems, servers, network infrastructure, and end-user devices. Optimized product life cycles, greater use of cloud computing, and improved recycling and waste management are also needed.

A study published in 2021 by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy attested potential, for instance, to reduce the electricity consumption of data centers in Switzerland by around 45%. Most of that potential stems from the cooling of servers. Trouble-free operation of servers would be possible at an ambient temperature of up to 32 degrees Celsius, but some data centers cool to a much lower temperature than necessary due to security and safety concerns.

Cryptocurrencies’ electricity consumption would be relatively easy to lower drastically, at least in theory. How? By transitioning from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) algorithms to validate transactions and add new blocks to blockchains. PoW, the algorithm used by Bitcoin, consumes many times more electricity than PoS does. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, switched to PoS in September 2022, reducing its electricity consumption by 99.99%. However, critics argue that the servers haven’t vanished into thin air and that their emissions have merely shifted away from Ethereum, meaning former Ethereum miners have simply switched over to other cryptocurrencies that still operate with PoW.

Experts believe that Bitcoin is unlikely to transition to PoS. PoW is too integral a component of Bitcoin’s architecture and community ethos for that to happen. In addition, attempts to ban Bitcoin have proven ineffective. In 2021, China prohibited all cryptocurrency transactions. Nevertheless, China still holds second place in Bitcoin mining right behind the USA. So, in the cryptocurrency space as well, the key to less emissions lies in large part in stepping up the use of renewable energy.

The ICT sector continues to evolve and grow. Data is the new gold these days, and it is proliferating. Moreover, the recent boom in mass adoption of artificial intelligence appears destined to further fuel this growth. Data means knowledge and data means power, and at the same time data is the key to solving a wide range of problems. Data is also crucially important in the climate policy debate and provides answers to many questions that contribute to solving the problem. In the fight against climate change, it is vital to utilize the technologies at our disposal correctly and to strike a balance between innovation and sustainability.