UN warns digital economy drive damaging environment

GENEVA

The drive towards a digital economy comes at an environmental cost, the United Nations has warned, with big data centres consuming vast amounts of water and energy.

While digitalization fuels global economic growth, its environmental repercussions are becoming "increasingly severe," the U.N. trade and development agency UNCTAD said in a report.

"Digitalization continues to move at warp speed, transforming lives and livelihoods. At the same time, unregulated digitalization risks leaving people behind and exacerbating environmental and climate challenges," U.N. chief Antonio Guterres said in the report.

He cautioned that increased reliance on digital tools was directly impacting the environment, from depleting raw materials, consuming water and energy, spewing air pollution and generating waste.

"These are accentuated by emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence," he said.

Data remains sketchy on how rapidly-evolving AI is affecting the environment.

In its Digital Economy Report 2024, UNCTAD said the information and communications technology sector emitted between 0.69 and 1.6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide in 2020.

That represents 1.5 to 3.2 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, about the same as air transport or shipping.

Demand for critical minerals like graphite, lithium, and cobalt could surge by 500 percent by 2050, said UNCTAD.

Data centers consumed 460 terawatt hours of electricity in 2022, with consumption expected to double by 2026.

The global energy consumption of "mining" bitcoin, the most prominent cryptocurrency, rose about 34 times between 2015 and 2023 to reach an estimated 121 TWh.