COP29 Inaugural Digitalisation Day: Charting a New Course

COP29 Azerbaijan will go down in history as the first climate conference to feature a dedicated Digitalisation Day. While industrialisation changed the world for the better, it also significantly took a toll on the climate and environment. Today, the technology sector is in a similar position. On one side, it provides innovative tools to accelerate the energy transition and address climate change by improving adaptation, mitigation and building resilience. On the other hand, however, its carbon emission footprint, significant water use and waste production exacerbate already glaring climate and environmental problems. And while innovation can’t and shouldn’t be stopped, it should be made sustainable. And the outcome of the COP29 Digitalisation Day promises to do just that.

The Technology Sector’s Carbon and Environmental Footprints

Demand for digital services is growing rapidly. According to the IEA, data centres and data transmission networks are responsible for 1-1.5% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. Other estimates point to a share of up to 3.2% in global emissions.

Experts note that emissions will increase further with the rise of AI and the boom in data centres. According to Morgan Stanley, by 2030, the data centre industry will emit about 2.5 billion metric tonnes in CO₂ equivalent emissions. For reference, in 2020, before the rise of widely used tools like ChatGPT, data centres and data transmission networks emitted 330 million tonnes in  CO₂ equivalent.

Big tech firms are among the biggest clean energy advocates, making significant investments in reducing their footprints. 

For example, Amazon, which aimed to meet 100% of its electricity consumption, including in data centres, with renewables by 2030, achieved its target seven years ahead of schedule. 

In 2020, Google set a goal to run 24/7 on carbon-free energy on every grid it operates by 2030. The company is currently on course to meet it. 

Meta’s operations have already reached net-zero emissions, while its data centres’ electricity use is matched with 100% renewable energy.

Microsoft is on course to achieve 100% renewable energy use by 2025. It also has the ambitious target of removing from the atmosphere the equivalent of all the carbon it has emitted since its founding in 1975 by 2050.

However, some experts argue that the tech giants’ real footprints are a lot bigger than officially reported. According to an analysis by The Guardian, the actual emissions from the company-owned data centres of Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple between 2020 and 2022 are 662%, or over 7.6 times, higher than publicly disclosed data.

With the rise of AI, they are only poised to increase further. According to Goldman Sachs, a ChatGPT query today needs nearly 10 times as much electricity than a Google search. Also, the demand for data centre power is on course to grow 160% by 2030.

S&P Global estimates that data centre emissions could nearly double by 2030 as growing energy demands will likely rely on gas-fired power generation.

Major Waste and Resource Use Issues

According to the World Health Organisation, electronic waste, or e-waste- is among the fastest-growing solid waste streams in the world. It is linked with health hazards, especially for children and pregnant women, including the release of lead into the environment. In 2022 alone, the world produced 62 million tonnes of e-waste, with only 22.3% formally collected and recycled. Worryingly, the gap is widening. According to the UN, electronic waste consumption rises five times faster than documented recycling.

Another widely common problem of the digital sector is its growing water demand. For example, chip manufacturing factories use only ultrapure water and consume as much water as Hong Kong and its 7.5 million population.

With the rise of AI, data centres’ water consumption is also growing steadily. According to estimates, ChatGPT consumes 500 millilitres of water for every five to 50 prompts. In addition, training an AI model at the level of a human brain can cost 126,000 litres of water annually. More importantly, the computing power needed to train AI increases tenfold every year. 

The growing water consumption presents a major problem, especially in regions facing water challenges, such as Asia.  

The COP29 Azerbaijan Digitalisation Day Offers Hope to Make the Technology Sector More Sustainable and Efficient

COP29 Baku will remain in history as the climate conference hosting the first-ever Digitalisation Day. The Presidency invited industry leaders, governments and civil society organisations to sign the COP29 Declaration on Green Digital Action. The initiative aims to accelerate sustainable digitalisation and emission reduction in the technology sector. In total, over 1,000 governments, companies, civil society organisations, international and regional organisations and other stakeholders backed the proposal. The Green Digital Action initiative, led by the UN Agency for Digital Technologies, also reviewed progress on existing technology industry sustainability pledges and highlighted potential digital solutions to address climate change.

Through the declaration, the parties pledged to use digital technologies to accelerate climate action while reducing the carbon and pollution footprints of technology manufacturing and tackling the growing problem of e-waste. The declaration will focus on promoting the sustainable use of technologies such as AI and big data for accelerating GHG emissions abatement, reductions and removal, as well as optimising energy consumption of the digital industry and reducing the produced e-waste and water use. Under its coverage are also measures for advancing digital technology to design early warning, life-saving tools to inform communities, as well as promote inclusive digital access, especially across least developed countries and small island developing states.

Parties also discussed the importance of building a digital infrastructure capable of withstanding climate change’s impacts. Promoting awareness and education on sustainable digital consumption and practices among consumers is also within the declaration’s scope. 

The parties pledged to incorporate the discussed objectives into policies. For example, one particular focus area for delivering on that front is integrating digital environmental sustainability into national climate strategies and policies “when and where applicable.”

In other news, the European Investment Bank announced it will pledge EUR 500 million to its clean technology companies to help them compete with rivals. The move follows similar measures already adopted in the US and China, where local clean technology companies have been backed through the IRA and state support, respectively. This arms race would further accelerate the development of innovative sustainability technologies.

During COP29 2024, least-developed countries (LDCs) were vocal about the unfavourable position they are in when it comes to digitalisation-related waste. While just 35% of their population used the internet in 2023, their lands are proving a key destination for e-waste. Compared to Western countries, they produce over 15 times less e-waste per capita.

Considering the significant global amount of e-waste, LDCs have a crucial role in the sustainable digital transformation by advancing responsible e-waste management. In fact, some countries are already making significant progress on that front. Bangladesh, for example, introduced the e-waste management rules in 2021 to address the over 3 million tonnes of e-waste it generates annually. The rule tackles the use of certain heavy metals and substances and is applicable to both manufacturers and importers. The Department of Environment of Bangladesh intends to reach e-waste collection rates of 50% within five years.

Towards a More Sustainable Technology Sector

Through the signing of the Declaration on Green Digital Action, COP29 made history with the first official joint efforts between different stakeholders to accelerate the use of digital tools for climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience and improve the tech industry’s resource efficiency and sustainability efforts. While the roadmap is clear, the next step is for all parties and stakeholders to turn the ambitious pledges into meaningful action.