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Diverse Approaches to Sustainability in Tech
Welcome to the Cognixia podcast. Earlier in December 2023, the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference convened in Dubai, as part of which some very important meetings of the Conference of the Parties or COP 28 took place. These meetings strived to deliver a successful COP 28 that drives global transformation towards a low-emission and climate-resilient world, fostering ambitious climate change action, and facilitating implementation including related support. The Incoming Presidency announced that the focus of the COP 28 would be four major paradigm shifts:
One, fast-tracking the energy transition and slashing emissions before 2030
Two, transforming climate finance, by delivering on old promises and setting the framework for a new deal on finance
Three, putting nature, people, lives, and livelihoods at the heart of climate action, and
Four, mobilizing for the most inclusive COP ever
In the face of the dire situation we are in climate-wise, all measures are important, and everybody has a role to play. The world is potentially set to breach the 1.5C temperature increase threshold by 2027. 2023 saw some major climate change-driven disasters, such as the wildfires in Hawaii, the cloak of orange haze from the record Canadian fires, July becoming the hottest month on the planet since 1880, heat waves in February and the cyclonic activity at the beginning and end of monsoon in India, the worsening hold of El Niño. The world as a whole is under a lot of pressure to slash its carbon emissions to meet the net zero goals set for 2050.
The time to wake up and ensure sustainability measures are weaved into everything we do was yesterday and the world is waking up to this reality now. While all industries are gradually taking responsibility and driving change in their respective spaces, one sector that is undergoing rapid transformation to meet their sustainability goals and ensure that there is progress without compromising the future of the planet is the Technology space.
The tech industry is responsible for a very large carbon footprint, there is no denying that. The data centers, the coding that goes into keeping them working as well as all the code they handle daily, artificial intelligence, machine learning algorithms, wireless throughputs, etc. come with a very energy-intensive nature, and while they do wonders for changing the world around us for the better, they are not exactly sustainable or planet-friendly from an environmental impact perspective. Just the data centers, a large majority of which are in the United States, and the transmission networks account for about 3% of the global electricity consumption as well as about 3.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. While these numbers might appear quite small, consider this – these numbers are roughly the same as those for the entire aviation industry. In fact, they are just slightly lesser than those for all the industries of the world that manufacture fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, refrigerants, and oil & gas extraction together, which hold about 3.6% of global carbon emissions.
On this front, a Reimagining Futures Study by Ernst & Young finds that more than half the enterprises who participated in the study felt that emerging technologies could play a vital role in accelerating global sustainability.
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By CognixiaWelcome to the Cognixia podcast. Earlier in December 2023, the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference convened in Dubai, as part of which some very important meetings of the Conference of the Parties or COP 28 took place. These meetings strived to deliver a successful COP 28 that drives global transformation towards a low-emission and climate-resilient world, fostering ambitious climate change action, and facilitating implementation including related support. The Incoming Presidency announced that the focus of the COP 28 would be four major paradigm shifts:
One, fast-tracking the energy transition and slashing emissions before 2030
Two, transforming climate finance, by delivering on old promises and setting the framework for a new deal on finance
Three, putting nature, people, lives, and livelihoods at the heart of climate action, and
Four, mobilizing for the most inclusive COP ever
In the face of the dire situation we are in climate-wise, all measures are important, and everybody has a role to play. The world is potentially set to breach the 1.5C temperature increase threshold by 2027. 2023 saw some major climate change-driven disasters, such as the wildfires in Hawaii, the cloak of orange haze from the record Canadian fires, July becoming the hottest month on the planet since 1880, heat waves in February and the cyclonic activity at the beginning and end of monsoon in India, the worsening hold of El Niño. The world as a whole is under a lot of pressure to slash its carbon emissions to meet the net zero goals set for 2050.
The time to wake up and ensure sustainability measures are weaved into everything we do was yesterday and the world is waking up to this reality now. While all industries are gradually taking responsibility and driving change in their respective spaces, one sector that is undergoing rapid transformation to meet their sustainability goals and ensure that there is progress without compromising the future of the planet is the Technology space.
The tech industry is responsible for a very large carbon footprint, there is no denying that. The data centers, the coding that goes into keeping them working as well as all the code they handle daily, artificial intelligence, machine learning algorithms, wireless throughputs, etc. come with a very energy-intensive nature, and while they do wonders for changing the world around us for the better, they are not exactly sustainable or planet-friendly from an environmental impact perspective. Just the data centers, a large majority of which are in the United States, and the transmission networks account for about 3% of the global electricity consumption as well as about 3.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. While these numbers might appear quite small, consider this – these numbers are roughly the same as those for the entire aviation industry. In fact, they are just slightly lesser than those for all the industries of the world that manufacture fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, refrigerants, and oil & gas extraction together, which hold about 3.6% of global carbon emissions.
On this front, a Reimagining Futures Study by Ernst & Young finds that more than half the enterprises who participated in the study felt that emerging technologies could play a vital role in accelerating global sustainability.