Digital: what environmental impact in 2022?

Digital in France

It is 4.4% of the country’s carbon footprint in 2022 either 29.5 MtCO2e the GES emitted in 2022. That is to say a little less than the total emissions of the heavy goods vehicle sector.

• 50% of the carbon impact of digital technology is linked to the manufacturing and operation of terminals (televisions, computers, smartphones, etc.).
• 46% to data centers.
• 4% to networks.

Equipment manufacturing: a significant impact

17,8 MtCO₂e of GHGs emitted in 2022. The manufacturing of this equipment is what weighs the most in the overall impact of digital technology.

117 Mt/an resources mobilized to produce this equipment : metals, ores, plastics, water, excavated soil, etc.

• Either 1.7 t per year and per person In France.

The impact of data centers on the rise

46 % of the digital carbon footprint are caused by data centers : it is therefore linked to the use of digital services (search engines, clouds, videos on demand, social networks, AI, etc.).

This is more than in 2020 (16%), for two reasons:

• at the time, only data centers located in France were taken into account; however, a significant part of our uses (53%) is hosted abroad;

• new data centers were commissioned between the two studies.

11% of French electricity consumption is linked to digital technology.

Either 51,5 TWh by national uses of digital technology. But these are in reality 65 TWhif we take into account data centers located abroad, almost as much as the total electricity consumption of Île-de-France (66.6 TWh).

Please note: che data, dating from 2022, does not yet reflect the rise of generative AI.

If nothing is done ADEME expects to a tripling of gas emissions greenhouse effect from here 2050

• + 80 % of electricity consumed in France, thus reaching 93 TWh (including 39 TWh from data centers alone).

What about audiovisual?

5,6 MtCO₂e emitted by the consumption of audiovisual content in France in 2022: Linear TV, audio and video streaming on demand, etc., which is as much as the emissions of 4,041,073 vehicles per year.

+ 29 % in 2030if we follow the current trend (less live TV, but more videos on demand
and video streaming).