The digital sector would represent 4.4 % of the carbon footprint of France: this is the figure that reveals the latest opinion of the Agency for the Ecological Transition (ADEME), published on January 9. He thus revised the increase of 2.5 % estimate of 2018, which did not take into account the data centers located outside the country and who nourished the digital uses of the French.
[Article issu de The Conversation, écrit par Mathieu Wellhoff, Chef du service Sobriété numérique, Ademe (Agence de la transition écologique)]
These new estimates evaluate that the sector – data centers, networks and terminals – weighs for 11 % of national electricity consumption. However, they rely on figures from 2022, before the general public advent of generative artificial intelligence which we know, without still having specific figures, how much energy it is. However, all prospective show it: where all other sectors conduct reduction policies, digital technology is about to pursue exponential growth.
Back on the major conclusions of the study, which dissects the digital carbon footprint: the weight of equipment, always in the majority, is gradually competed by that of uses, which know with the support of data centers an unlikely progression to dry up.
Equipment, fighting cultural obsolescence
According to ADEME's opinion, the equipment related to digital (televisions, computers and smartphones mainly) represent half of the carbon footprint in the sector. An impact especially linked to their manufacture and the extraction of associated metals: a prospective analysis of ADEME has identified around fifty in the 20 most frequent digital equipment, among which it led a prospective analysis on 25 main.
Five of them have been designated as criticism (tin, money, ruthedium, nickel and antimony) with regard to the risk of supply that weigh on them from a geopolitical, environmental point of view and social.
If the equipment continues to increase in volume, their share in this footprint has largely lowered compared to the estimates of 2018, which estimated it at 85 %. An evolution linked to the methodological change made in the new study, but undoubtedly also to the mobilization of certain levers: the eco -design of the products, the extension of their lifespan by practices such as repair (and the implementation repairability or sustainability indices provided for by AGEC law), reconditioning or even better maintenance of objects.
An economy of functionality, certainly stammering, begins to emerge, less focused on possession than on the use and pooling of equipment.
Growing uses
On the other hand, the works of Ademe reveal another trend: the rise of data centers, which constitute the second big part of the carbon footprint of digital.
While they only represented 15 % in the previous study, they weigh in this new estimate for 46 %, the remaining 4 % being linked to the networks. On the one hand because the foreign data centers used for French uses were this time taken into account, on the other hand because these infrastructure has multiplied in France in recent years.
Their colossal energy consumption worries as much as their greed in water and the role they can play in terms of artificialization of soils and land tension.
However, with data centers, it is our use of digital technology that is directly involved: the more digital we consume, the more we need these data centers. With the data that it had, until 2022, therefore, ADEME has already tried to dissect our most delicious digital uses. A complex work to be carried out, where gray areas remain, but which highlights several elements.
For example, while video represents around two thirds of data flows, it is responsible for a third of the environmental impacts of digital. Where do others come from? To find out, it remains to analyze in detail the different digital services (video games, professional uses, etc.).
Nevertheless, this balance is called upon to evolve: the all -round deployment of generative AI for various purposes should explode the energy consumption of data centers, without any other evaluating. While the impact of AI was so far mainly linked to its training and its recounting, its use – with much more energy -consuming queries than a classic request – plays an increasing role today.
The International Energy Agency (IAI) thus provides between 2022 and 2026 a doubling of global electrical consumption linked to data centers, in particular dedicated to AI. Tech giants have indeed announced that they want to double the number and computation power of data centers in the world by 2026. In other words, reiterate in only 2 years the growth of the last 20 years … and go out by the same Opportunity for their climate commitments.
However, if the creation of data centers is rapid, it is necessary behind that the energy power follows. Large uncertainties weigh on the availability, in such a short term, of sufficient energy to meet this demand without restarting fossil fuels. Highing up on the development of nuclear or renewables to compensate for this increase seems a very daring bet.
Especially since other sectors also need, too, in the context of the energy transition, of increasing access to “clean” energies.
Indispensable sobriety
In this context, reducing the environmental impact of digital must go through measures such as lengthening the lifespan of equipment, eco -design of digital services (streaming platforms, video games, mobile applications, etc.) and the Improvement of the energy performance of data centers. They will have effects on the environmental impact of digital.
But they will not alone be enough to compensate for the disturbing growth prospects of the sector – even in terms of equipment, the renewal of which may be accelerated by the functionalities linked to the AI and the multiplication of connected objects – who also require mobilizing the lever of sobriety. As of now, a reflection on our digital uses is essential to discern those which must be reduced and those which are to brake upstream of their development, when they are not relevant or at least not priority at look at other issues.
On the level of France, this also involves reflection and regulation of the growing establishment of data centers, to take into account their local impacts (energy but also with regard to water and the artificialization of soil ).
While many unknowns remain in the face of the explosion of AI and in parallel, many actors brandish this revolution as a tool in the service of the environment, prudence is essential. France is already the leader in public policies on the environmental impact of digital, it must continue in this logic of anticipation of innovation, measure its effects to better understand them and support more sober and more sovereign solutions, such as that low tech and digital opened.
With an unwavering passion for local news, Christopher leads our editorial team with integrity and dedication. With over 20 years’ experience, he is the backbone of Wouldsayso, ensuring that we stay true to our mission to inform.
