Measuring the impact of digital solutions on the climate

 https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/measuring-impact-digital-solutions-climate 

The European Green Digital Coalition has published new methodologies to measure the net impact of digital solutions on the climate.

The publications consist of 3 documents:

1. Net Carbon Impact Assessment Methodology for ICT Solutions, including sector specific methodologies
2. Real Life Case Studies
3. Deployment Guidelines

The Net Carbon Impact Assessment Methodology for ICT Solutions lies at the core of the EGDC publications. It contains requirements for comparing scenarios with and without ICT solutions in a given context, allowing us to accurately quantify the positive contribution and direct footprint – in CO2 equivalent – of a specific digital solution.

It is complemented by sector-specific methodologies illustrating the practical application of each requirement for 6 sectors: energy, construction/buildings, smart cities, agriculture, transport and manufacturing.

The real-life case studies in all 6 sectors helped to refine and illustrate the impact of the methodologies. They were collected from EGDC members and stakeholders deploying ICT solutions. These include cloud-based tools for the energy management in buildings, 5G-enabled manufacturing and agriculture, smart energy and smart city platforms, and more.

Finally, the deployment guidelines were drawn up to enhance the understanding of the deployment of ICT solutions in different sectors. They include guidance on optimising their positive impact on the climate, and minimising negative consequences.

Green digital sector

 https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/green-digital

The European Commission proposed a Green Deal Industrial Plan to support its goal of achieving climate-neutrality by 2050 while enhancing the competitiveness of Europe’s net-zero industry.

A key pillar of the plan is ensuring the EU has access to technology, products and solutions that are key to transitioning to net-zero. These include photovoltaic cells, wind turbines, batteries, hydrogen electrolysers, carbon capture, storage equipment and more. Such products and solutions also represent a major source of economic growth and quality jobs in Europe.

Now to meet its goals, the software giant will have to make serious progress very quickly in gaining access to green steel and concrete and less carbon-intensive chips

 

Today’s newsletter looks at how artificial intelligence is foiling efforts to cut greenhouse gases. You can read and share the full story on Bloomberg.com. For unlimited access to climate and energy news, please subscribe.

Technical difficulties

By Akshat Rathi and Dina Bass When Microsoft Corp. pledged four years ago to remove more carbon than it emits by the end of the decade, it was one of the most ambitious and comprehensive plans to tackle climate change. Now the software giant's relentless push to be the global leader in artificial intelligence is putting that goal in peril. The Seattle-based company’s total planet-warming impact is about 30% higher today than it was in 2020, according to the latest sustainability report published Wednesday. That makes getting to below zero by 2030 even harder than it was when it announced its carbon-negative goal. Now to meet its goals, the software giant will have to make serious progress very quickly in gaining access to green steel and concrete and less carbon-intensive chips, said Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg Green. “In 2020, we unveiled what we called our carbon moonshot. That was before the explosion in artificial intelligence,” he said. “So in many ways the moon is five times as far away as it was in 2020, if you just think of our own forecast for the expansion of AI and its electrical needs.” Microsoft’s predicament is one of the first concrete examples of how the pursuit of AI is colliding with efforts to cut emissions. Choosing to capitalize on its early lead in the new market for generative AI has made Microsoft the most valuable company in the world, but its leaders also acknowledge keeping up with demand will mean investing more heavily in polluting assets. AI products are power hungry and data-processing heavy. That first increases the workload of existing centers, which increases energy use. But such is the demand that, to keep up, Microsoft has to also build new data centers. That requires carbon-intensive cement, steel and microchips. Brad Smith speaks at Gateway Technical College in Sturtevant, Wisconsin, on May 8. Photographer: Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg The tech giant plans to spend more than $50 billion between July 2023 and June of this year on expanding its data centers to meet rising demand for AI products. That number for the next 12 months, starting in July, is expected to be even higher, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said in an interview last month. Since February, the company has touted new data center projects in Wisconsin, Thailand, Indonesia, Spain, Germany and Japan. Smith believes the good AI can do for the world will outweigh its environmental impact. “We fundamentally believe that the answer is not to slow down the expansion of AI but to speed up the work needed to make it more environmentally friendly,” said Smith. “I guarantee there’s one way to fail: It’s to give up.” Read the full story here.

Small but growing 1.5% Data centers around the world currently comprise about this share of global electricity use, according to the International Energy Agency. But this may go up as AI requires more energy than other forms of computing.

A tough calculation  "We're talking about ChatGPT and we know nothing about it. It could be three raccoons in a trench coat." Sasha Luccioni A researcher at AI company Hugging Face Inc. AI is responsible for a massive and growing amount of planet-warming carbon emissions, but just how much is hard for some researchers to tally.

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