From the energy that goes into making smartphones to the fact that even emails create carbon emissions, the world’s internet addiction comes with costs to the climate.
But could digital technology be part of the solution to climate change, as well as the problem?
Ahead of next month’s COP26 climate talks, AFP looks at five ways tech could help limit the impact.
Artificial intelligence
Among the many items on the COP26 agenda, countries are preparing a roadmap for using artificial intelligence (AI) to fight climate change.
AI relies on complex calculations by high-powered computers that can eat up vast quantities of energy.
According to University of Massachusetts researchers, training a single AI algorithm system can use nearly five times the emissions produced by a car over its lifetime.
But AI is already helping make a wide range of industrial processes more energy-efficient, simply by making calculations that humans can’t.
Consultancy PwC estimates that greater AI use in four critical sectors of the economy, including agriculture and transport, could cut global emissions by four per cent.
Peter Clutton-Brock, the Centre for AI and Climate co-founder, said artificial intelligence was not “a silver bullet” that could reverse climate change.
“But there are some interesting and exciting applications that are emerging,” he said.
These include using AI to analyse data on deforestation and melting sea ice, to predict better which areas will be affected next.
Apps and search engines
Sceptics may argue that a single person can only have a limited impact, but the eco-conscious have various apps at their disposal to monitor their carbon footprints.
Various apps estimate the emissions produced by a car or plane ride, while others allow shoppers to scan items and see how eco-friendly they are.
Google last week announced tweaks to its search tools to show drivers the most fuel-efficient routes and display emissions information for flights.
Meanwhile, the search engine Ecosia uses the profits from its ads to pay for reforestation, with more than 135 million trees planted so far.
Remote work
Has the shift towards remote work during the pandemic been good for the environment? It’s still unclear, say, researchers.
Last year the massive drop in commuting was hailed as a contributor towards a drop in global emissions, as much of the world hunkered down.
But signing in online still means employees use energy at home — and in the winter, individual heating dwellings can be less efficient than a single office for a whole team.
The International Energy Agency found that if all white-collar workers stayed home one day a week, global emissions could be cut by 24 million tonnes — roughly equivalent to London’s emissions in a year.
Workers with long car commutes could certainly cut their carbon footprints by staying home, the IEA said.
But it concluded that drivers with a daily commute of fewer than six kilometres (3.7 miles) might use more energy by staying home with the heaters on.
Cloud computing
It was feared that the giant, energy-hungry data centres the internet depended upon could become a significant contributor to climate change for years.
But a study published in the journal Science last year suggests these fears have not been realised, thanks to unexpected leaps inefficiency.
By 2018 data centres were still only consuming about one per cent of the world’s electricity, despite rocketing demand for data storage.
Tech giants’ desire to cut their electricity bills is partly to thank for this.
Google, for instance, used AI to reduce the costs of cooling its data centres by 40 per cent.
Smart cities
The United Nations estimates that cities account for 70 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions.
And with the population forecast to grow ever more urban, designing energy-efficient cities is a top priority.
The Internet of Things (IoT) — connecting objects with sensors that can communicate and make intelligent decisions — is already being used in urban design.
A pilot project in Amsterdam, for example, used IoT to guide drivers to empty parking spaces, reducing the time spent driving around the city searching for one.