A few days ago, Greenpeace and the Metrology and Testing Center of the Fifth Electronic Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (Guangzhou Saibao Metrology and Testing Center) jointly compiled the “Decarbonization Road of China’s Digital Infrastructure: Data Center and 5G Carbon Reduction Potential and Challenges (2020″). -2035)”, hoping to discuss the energy consumption and carbon emission trends of China’s digital infrastructure, improve the awareness of policy makers and the industry on the challenges of energy conservation and emission reduction, and help the digital infrastructure industry to achieve the goal of 100% renewable energy as soon as possible The low-carbon transformation of the digital economy provides a solid foundation for the digital economy as a whole to move towards “carbon neutrality”.
Proportion of carbon emissions from digital infrastructure by region in 2020
In the post-epidemic era, “digitization” and “greening” have become the main themes of global economic recovery. As China proposes the dual carbon goal, how to achieve the synergy of “digitization” and “greenization”, and how to maximize the service of digital technology and infrastructure to China’s carbon neutral transformation requires urgent attention.
2020-2035 China Data Center and 5G Energy Consumption Growth Forecast
On the one hand, the deep integration of digital technology and traditional industries will promote the upgrading and transformation of the industry in an all-round way, reduce energy and resource consumption, and achieve double improvement in production efficiency and carbon efficiency. On the other hand, the vigorous development of digital infrastructure will bring about an increase in energy demand and carbon emissions. In recent years, digital technologies such as cloud computing, big data, 5G, and artificial intelligence have evolved from single-point applications to continuous collaborative evolution, forming a new digital industry system. The digital foundation behind these digital technologies is expanding rapidly. Energy demand and carbon emissions have attracted much attention. The challenge of carbon reduction cannot be ignored. It is urgent to formulate a zero-carbon development path for the continuously expanding digital infrastructure.
2020-2035 China Data Center and 5G Carbon Emission Growth Forecast
From the perspective of technological innovation, the development of digital technology will bring significant emission reduction effects. When digital technology and key industries continue to penetrate and integrate, digital technology can effectively promote the decoupling of economic growth and carbon emission growth, mainly in three aspects:
One is the energy efficiency improvement brought about by technological progress itself. 5G technology has lower energy consumption per unit of data transmission, and helps reduce battery consumption of smartphones, IoT and other terminal devices. Deep neural networks can promote data center savings through learning. A lot of energy consumption.
The second is to drive the optimization of the structure of the industrial chain. The transformation of industry, energy, construction, transportation infrastructure and upstream and downstream systems by artificial intelligence, industrial Internet and other technologies will greatly strengthen the synergy of the industrial chain and make the connection between vertical fields of various industries more efficient. Tighter, more intelligently responsive, and more efficient overall, thereby significantly reducing material and energy consumption.
The third is to replace the original production and consumption methods. For example, high-definition video conferencing can replace international travel and travel needs, thereby reducing transportation emissions.
With the advent of the digital economy era, in the face of the challenges of energy consumption and carbon emissions of digital infrastructure, governments, information and communication industries, and leading companies have begun to prepare countermeasures.
In response to the requirements of the Paris Agreement, in 2020 the European Commission proposed a strategy to support greening and digital transformation, and will achieve “climate neutrality” for the data center and information and communication industries by 2030.
The Global Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), and the Science-Based Carbon Targets Initiative (SBTi) released science-based emission reduction targets for the ICT industry in 2020. The ICT industry needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% between 2020 and 2030. Currently, a group of 29 operators representing 30% of the world’s mobile connections have committed to the reduction target.
As of January 2021, 41 technology companies around the world, including Google, Apple, and Facebook, have taken the lead in setting a 100% renewable energy target, of which about 20% have achieved the 100% renewable energy target, and about 50% of the companies will be achieved by 2030.
On China’s road to carbon neutrality, it is crucial to achieve green and high-quality development of the digital infrastructure industry. In order to maximize the emission reduction effect of digital technology on all industries in China, the digital infrastructure industry should take the lead in starting green transformation. Its own high energy consumption and high carbon emissions need to be taken seriously and considered, and it is urgent to avoid high The lock-in effect of carbon infrastructure investment and the risk of huge stranded assets to achieve a win-win situation for development and the environment. In order to promote the transformation of the digital infrastructure industry to carbon neutrality and 100% renewable energy, relevant departments are suggested to start from four aspects:
Strengthen the top-level design, strengthen the green and low-carbon orientation of digital infrastructure, and issue a “carbon peak, carbon neutral” roadmap for the digital infrastructure industry.
Improve the assessment system for the use of renewable energy in the digital infrastructure industry, link the dual control objectives with the approval policy for new data centers, and use the proportion of renewable energy in data centers as one of the assessment indicators.
Further improve the market mechanism for the use of renewable energy in the digital infrastructure industry, promote the coordinated development of the industry and renewable energy, expand the scope of industry participation in market-based transactions in renewable energy, and improve the green power certificate mechanism.
Improve the incentive mechanism for promoting the use of renewable energy in the digital infrastructure industry, guide the flow of capital, and play the role of public funds in leveraging green and low-carbon digital infrastructure.
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