Carbon impact of video streaming
Policy developments
6.1. Introduction – Policy developments
This policy section of the white paper follows the main components of the value chain of video streaming, focusing on governmental policy related to data centres, networks and end-user devices both on regional and national level. The geographical scope for this is primarily Europe where there have been significant developments recently, but we acknowledge that further comparison and analysis with other regulatory efforts should be conducted. Subsequently, this section looks at what the industry is currently doing either collectively or at a company level. Similarly, the value chain of video streaming (data centres, networks and enduser devices) will be considered for these industry initiatives. Lastly, there is an assessment of the gaps and opportunities within governmental policy and corporate action. As mentioned in the introduction, there is an increasing awareness among policy makers that ICT has both the capability to deliver technology to reduce carbon emissions, but it also has its own significant carbon footprint. Therefore, policy makers are concerned both about reducing the direct carbon impact from ICT, and also about encouraging innovation that can enable emission reductions within the sector and in other sectors. Particularly in 2020, this awareness has been reflected in public policy and corporate action on tackling emissions from the sector (including video streaming specifically). With a strong recommendation from the sector that funding for ICT innovation is part of a green recovery, decision makers are looking to improve the conditions for coverage and connectivity by improving the investment environment for ICT. This is illustrated by the examples of explicit inclusion of ICT in the EU Taxonomy and the European Green Deal. On a European level, concerning the ICT sector and digitalisation, the European Green Deal includes a digital strategy titled ‘Shaping Europe’s Digital Future’, published in February 2020. The European Green Deal is at the core of defining a sustainability framework for Europe and is laying the groundwork for the European Commission’s sustainability roadmap. This comprehensive set of policies is providing a framework to meet the climate targets for 2030 and 2050. Firstly, Europe wants to be the first continent to have no net emissions by 2050. The aim of the digital strategy is to prepare Europe for a new digital age and simultaneously achieve the 2050 climate neutrality targets proposed by the European Commission. The main components within the digital strategy are on Artificial Intelligence, European data strategy, European industrial strategy, High Performance Computing (HPC), Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, Cybersecurity, Digital skills and connectivity.
The objectives are formulated under the umbrella of three pillars: (I) Technology that works for people; II) A fair and competitive digital economy, and III) A digital and sustainable society. Underlying this strategy is the objective for Europe to be one of the largest digital players globally. A ‘digital and sustainable society’ is defined under the strategy as the ICT sector ‘contributing to a sustainable, climate-neutral and resource-efficient economy’. As outlined in the Introduction and Background sections there is uncertainty on the exact contribution of the ICT sector to global energy use and emissions, and this is also affected by what is included within the definition of ICT. The European Commission’s digital strategy claims that the ICT sector accounts for 5-9% of the global electricity use and over 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions (European Commission, DG CONNECT, 2020c). Despite the uncertainty over these numbers, the strategy does clearly acknowledge that technology and innovations from that very same sector could also help reduce global emissions, more than the sector itself emits. For example, the German government is making strides with presenting an environmental digital agenda with more than 70 measures to make the tech sector more sustainable (German Ministry for Environment, 2020a). The government claims that this digital agenda is the first strategy in Europe that combines digitisation and environmental protection in such a consistent manner. The German environment ministry places the footnote that "If unchecked, digitalisation will become a problem for the climate”, but simultaneously stressing the potential that digitalisation has for containing climate change. Addressing this paradox is at the heart of the many national policies. (ibid.) In March 2021, the European Commission announced the Green Digital Coalition (European Commission, 2021c). This specifically acknowledges both the emissions of the ICT sector and the potential for reducing emissions in other sectors. It includes a commitment to ‘develop methods and tools to measure the net impact of green digital technologies’, and as of mid-April 2021 had CEOs of 26 companies that had signed the declaration. The balance between both negative and positive impacts is dependent on improving energy efficiency and circular economy performance of the ICT sector, from data centres to broadband networks to end-user devices.
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