Don’t Look Up. Greenhouse gas emissions due to the digital uses of the French could be multiplied by almost three by 2050 if no action is taken by then. This is the conclusion of a joint study by Arcep and Ademe, the third part of which was submitted to the government on Monday.
In this scenario, the digital carbon footprint (which weighed 2.5% of the national footprint in 2020) would jump by 187% in 2050. The consumption of metals and minerals would increase by 59%, and energy consumption by 79%. %.
The expected growth in uses would also require the creation of new data centers which would represent 22% of emissions by this date. To reduce these impacts by 2030, Arcep and Ademe have imagined four more or less ambitious scenarios.
Video projectors or digital revolution?
These range from a simple eco-design of equipment (associated with extending their lifespan by one year) to an approach of sobriety where televisions would be gradually replaced by video projectors (less greedy in resources) and where the number of connected objects would not increase. This hypothesis is the only one that succeeds in reducing emissions (by 16%) in 2030.
In the longer term, the study also presents different trajectories for 2050. On the one hand, a “frugal generation” which renounces superfluous digital leisure. In contrast, the total “digital revolution” which would rely on future technology to capture and sequester the carbon emitted into the atmosphere.
In the latter case, “the carbon footprint of the digital sector is multiplied (+372%). Moreover, its need for a large supply of materials competes with other economic sectors essential to the ecological transition and raises the question of the scarcity, even the depletion, of raw materials. »