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The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector has gained much attention in the discussions on climate change, as it could impact global emissions both positively and negatively. The objective of the present study is to provide estimates for the 2020 use stage electricity consumption and ICT sector's total lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions divided in three main parts: user devices including internet-of-things, networks and data centers. The study builds on a high number of data sources including measured and reported data from 150 companies that is estimated to cover about 80% of network subscriptions, about 55% of data center electricity, and about 35% of upstream GHG emissions. To understand the development, the results are put into the perspective of earlier studies. In conclusion, the ICT sector used about 4% of the global electricity in the use stage and represented about 1.4% of the global GHG emissions in 2020. The use stage electricity consumption and the total GHG emissions have increased since 2015, but the impact per subscription has decreased. The user devices accounted for over half of all GHG emissions, with equal parts relating to use stage and other lifecycle stages. For networks and data centers, the use stage GHG emissions are dominating. The electricity consumption and GHG emissions are also estimated for the closely related areas Entertainment and Media (including e.g., TVs), paper media, and cryptocurrencies. • ICT sector represents ∼4% of global electricity consumption in 2020. • ICT sector represents 1.4% of global GHG emissions in 2020. • User devices represents a majority of GHG emissions (∼57%). • Embodied emissions represent 36% of total emissions. • The ICT sector has increased its emissions by about 5% from 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is commonly assumed that data volume and network energy consumption are directly proportional, a notion perpetuated by numerous studies and media coverage. This paper challenges this assumption, offering a comprehensive examination of network operations to explain why the relationship between energy consumption and data volume is nonlinear. The power model approach is explored as an alternative methodology for calculating network energy consumption providing a more reliable representation of network energy use. The power model demonstrates that simple energy intensity calculations, expressed as kilowatt hours per gigabyte of data, are insufficient for accurately estimating real‐world network energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of information and communication technology (ICT) is growing throughout society, and new products and solutions are developed at an increasing rate. To enable environmental assessment of specific ICT products and other products that rely on ICT in some way, a more complete, detailed, and up-to-date study based on real measurements is needed. To date, similar studies have not been readily available or fully comprehensive. This study assessed the overall operational electricity use and life-cycle-based carbon footprint (CF) relating to ICT in Sweden, including activities not commonly addressed previously, such as shared data transport networks and data centers and manufacturing of network infrastructure. Specific, detailed inventory data are presented and used for assessment of the Internet Protocol core network, data transmission, operator activities, and access network. These specific data, in combination with secondary, more generic data for end-user equipment, allow a comprehensive overall assessment. The majority of the ICT network CF is the result of end-user equipment, mainly personal computers, followed by third-party enterprise networks and data centers and then access networks. The parts closest to the user proved to be clearly responsible for the majority of the impact. The results are presented for Swedish ICT networks and for ICT networks in general based on a global average electricity mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The positive and negative environmental impacts of information and communication technology (ICT) are widely debated. This study assesses the electricity use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to the ICT and entertainment & media (E&M) sectors at sector level, including end users, and thus complements information on the product level. GHGs are studied in a life cycle perspective, but for electricity use, only the operational use is considered. The study also considers which product groups or processes are major contributors. Using available data and extrapolating existing figures to the global scale for 2007 reveals that the ICT sector produced 1.3% of global GHG emissions in 2007 and the E&M sector 1.7%. The corresponding figures for global electricity use were 3.9% and 3.2%, respectively. The results indicate that for the ICT sector, operation leads to more GHG emissions than manufacture, although impacts from the manufacture of some products are significant. For the E&M sector, operation of TVs and production of printed media are the main reasons for overall GHG emissions. TVs as well as printed media, with the estimations made here, led to more GHG emissions on a global level in 2007 than PCs (manufacture and operation). A sector study of this type provides information on a macro scale, a perspective easily lost when considering, for example, the product-related results of life cycle assessments. The macro scale is essential to capture changes in total consumption and use. However, the potential of the ICT sector to help decrease environmental impacts from other sectors was not included in the assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article quantifies the global carbon footprint of mobile communication systems, and discusses its ecological and economic implications. Using up-to-date data and life cycle assessment models, we predict an increase of CO2 equivalent emissions by a factor of three until 2020 compared to 2007, rising from about 86 to 235 Mto CO2e, suggesting a steeper increase than predicted in the well-known SMART2020 report. We provide a breakdown of the global carbon footprint, which reveals that production of mobile devices and global radio access network operation will remain the major contributors, accompanied by an increasing share of emissions due to data transfer in the backbone resulting from rising mobile traffic volumes. The energy bill due to network operation will gain increasing importance in cellular business models. Furthermore, technologies to reduce energy consumption are considered a key enabler for the spread of mobile communications in developing countries. Taking into account several scenarios of technological advancement and rollout, we analyze the overall energy consumption of global radio access networks and illustrate the saving potential of green communication technologies. We conclude that, conditioned on quick implementation and alongside other "classical" improvements of spectral efficiency, these technologies offer the potential to serve three orders of magnitude more traffic with the same overall energy consumption as today. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]