From the International Telecommunication Union and the “no sh** Sherlock” department, comes this bit of obviousness.
Transparency and accountability on climate action also move higher in period covered by ITU-WBA Greening Digital Companies report Reports and Proceedings
Credit: International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Geneva, 5 June 2025 – Tech sector carbon emissions continued their rise in recent years, fueled by rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and data infrastructure, according to Greening Digital Companies 2025.
The report, produced by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) — the UN agency for digital technologies — and the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA), tracks the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy use, and climate commitments of 200 leading digital companies as of 2023, the most recent year for which full data is available.
While the annual report calls on digital companies to address their growing environmental footprint, it also indicates encouraging progress. Worldwide, more companies had set emissions targets, sourced renewable energy and aligned with science-based frameworks.
“Advances in digital innovation — especially AI — are driving up energy consumption and global emissions,” said ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin. “While more must be done to shrink the tech sector’s footprint, the latest Greening Digital Companies report shows that industry understands the challenge — and that continued progress depends on sustaining momentum together.”
Global AI expansion fuels energy demand
According to the latest edition of the report, electricity consumption by data centers — which power AI development and deployment, among other uses — increased by 12 per cent each year from 2017 to 2023, four times faster than global electricity growth.
Four leading AI-focused companies alone saw their operational emissions increase in the reporting period by 150 per cent on average since 2020. This rise in energy that is either produced or purchased – known as Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions – underscores the urgent need to manage AI’s environmental impact.
In total, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions reported by the 166 digital companies covered by the report contributed 0.8 per cent of all global energy-related emissions in 2023.
The 164 digital companies that reported electricity consumption accounted for 2.1 per cent of global electricity use, at 581 terawatt-hours (TWh), with 10 companies responsible for half of this total.
“Digital companies have the tools and influence to lead the global climate transition, but progress must be measured not only by ambition, but by credible action,” said Lourdes O. Montenegro, Director of Research and Digitisation at WBA. “This report provides a clear signal to the international community: more companies are stepping up, but emissions and electricity use continues to rise.”
Progress amid rising challenges
Although emissions continued their rise, Greening Digital Companies 2025 highlights steps taken by many tech firms that suggest a strengthening of transparency and accountability.
Eight companies scored above 90 per cent in the report’s climate commitment assessment on data disclosure, targets and performance. This is up from just three in last year’s report.
For the first time, the report includes data on companies’ progress toward meeting climate targets and realizing stated net-zero ambitions. Almost half of the companies assessed had committed to achieving net-zero emissions, with 41 firms targeting 2050 and 51 aiming for earlier deadlines.
Other trends among the 200 digital companies featured in the report include:
- Renewable energy adoption: 23 companies operated on 100 per cent renewable energy in 2023, up from 16 in 2022.
- Dedicated climate reporting: 49 companies released standalone climate reports, signaling greater transparency.
- Scope 3 consideration: The number of companies publishing targets on indirect emissions from supply chains and product use rose from 73 to 110, showing increasing awareness of industry impacts.
A call for bold, collaborative and immediate action
Highlighting how the tech sector can ensure long-term digital sustainability, the joint ITU-WBA report recommends that companies:
- Strengthen data verification, target ambition and climate reporting, including by publishing climate transition action plans.
- Disclose the full environmental footprint of their AI operations.
- Foster cross-sector collaboration among tech firms, energy producers and environmental advocates, alongside industry initiatives to drive accelerated digital decarbonization.
- Keep accelerating renewable energy adoption.
“The Greening Digital Companies report has become a vital tool in tracking the climate footprint of the tech sector,” said Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau. “Despite the progress made, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, confirming that that the need for digital companies to adopt science-aligned, transparent, and accountable climate strategies has never been greater. ITU’s work in monitoring the environmental impact of the sector is a crucial step towards achieving a sustainable digital transformation.”
ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau is working with regulators, statisticians, academics, and industry experts to define indicators that support national GHG monitoring and data-driven action through the Expert Group on Telecommunication/ICT Indicators.
As the COP30 UN climate conference approaches, ITU’s Green Digital Action aims to ensure that updated climate pledges and adaptation plans will fully reflect the complete impacts of digital technologies.
###
Resources
- Read the full Greening Digital Companies: Monitoring emissions and climate commitments report 2025 here.
- Watch the virtual launch event of the report, on 5 June 2025, here.
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Yeah, right? Tech might actually stop cheering for “renewables”.
They already have. They want clean, reliable and steady energy ie coal, gas, nuclear.
Data Centers (Energy Hogs) should be required to produce their own energy regardless of their options of How to generate it, and not be allowed to transfer that energy from its source to the demand site via the same GRID that other utility customers depend on.
What.would happen to the Grid if/when (eventual) the Data Centers trip offline and suddenly 5% of the States demand goes offline…causing an immediate overcapacity and subsequent drop in Frequency?
Why data centers? Why not require large office complexes do the same? Factories?
Show me a factory that uses 5% of an entire States daily generation (2GW or more) and I’d include them too.
Any industrial situation where the sudden loss of demand could trip the grid should be required to produce their own off grid generation
Generate more electricity.
With Reliable-Dispatchable and Cheap Coal and Gas
That’s such a great idea why should we limit it to data centers. Every major user of electricity should be required to provide their own electricity. Every factory, warehouse, office building, etc. should be generating their own power. For that matter, why should we allow individual A/Cs and heat pumps cycling on and off to potentially destabilize the grid.
Now you’re just being silly. Individual A/C and useless Heat Pump cycling won’t destabilize the grid. Even a thousand cycling in unison won’t affect load beyond a thousandth of a percent. But anything requiring GWs of supply does carry a (>2-3%) percentage of demand load and can negatively affect the frequency of the grid if their demand suddenly vanishes
Can you name a single data center, or anything else for that matter, that pulls 5% of the power from any grid?
Beyond that, how often does an entire building drop off the grid? Especially really big ones?
Do you read WUWT?
Try this post
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/06/07/delusional-business-council-of-australia-thinks-ai-can-be-powered-by-renewables/
Facebook Data Center to start…set to use 2GW generation to power their data center.
Not a “single” one, but the Ashburn, VA “Data Center Alley” consumes roughly 4,140 MW. It relies on power from Dominion Energy (18% coal, 23% nuclear, 48% natural gas and 11 % hydro and “other renewables”) with a total output of 27,000 MW. So these data “campuses” centered in Ashburn consume around 14% of Dominion’s total output. Don’t know if they would destabilize the Northern VA grid, but it would seem like the opposite would be true.
Governor Youngkin and Domininion are in serious talks about expanding their nuclear with SMRs.
https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/news-releases/2024/july/name-1030643-en.html
Some online source claim 70% of the world’s internet traffic flows through there.
“11 % hydro and “other renewables”
LOL. Nice how they hide the pathetically small “contribution” of wind and solar so the taxpayers and ratepayers won’t see how little they’re getting for all that waste of money and resources and all that defilement of the landscape.
Interesting concept, that. Expand on it.
Despite all the promises, money squandered, and biased media rants we are using more, not less, fossil fuels. We are building more coal fired energy plants than being removed. That’s a lot of virtue signaling going to waste.
We?
(EIA chart “US electricity generation by major energy source” shows a decline in coal burned for electricity since about 2007.)
We = the world.
All they have to do is cover the roofs of their data centers with solar panels and have a few wind turbines around the corner for nighttime. Problem solved!
/s
The IEA say that typical data centres use as much electricity as 100,000 households but the largest ones under construction today use as much as 2m households. Build 10 of them across the land and it is the equivalent effect on electricity use of increasing your population by 20+ million.
IEA ‘Energy and AI’ (April 2025)
And so?
You could easily build 10 new data centres in 10 years vastly increasing your electricity use. It is highly unlikely that most advanced countries would increase their population by 20m in 10 years.
Maybe… generate more electricity to meet increased demand?
The IEA say electricity grids are struggling to keep up with electricity demand and the rise of unreliables. Supply chains for transformers and cables are already very tight. Modern data centres are going to exacerbate that struggle.
IEA ‘World Energy Investment 2025’ (June 2025)
My take on the piece is it’s a gob of mealy mouthed BS.
Maybe I’m just too old, but I do not seem to benefit or have my life changed by all of this energy intensive “data”. Well, it might get changed as energy gets sucked up into the data centers.
The one area that might have a positive effect on me is medical advances. Seems pretty niche and shouldn’t require a significant fraction of available energy production.
Yet here you are, using the internet.
Bit of a difference there, buckwheat. But apparently you’re young…perhaps you’d recommend an ice flow for us older, and as you seem to see it, out of touch elders?
How do you figure using the internet is not using data centers?
I didn’t say technology in general. I used the internet on copper phone lines up till a few years ago, FCOL. 10 years ago this data power issue was barely on the radar. If you were paying attention.
So tell me S. Green. Aside from buying Chinesium on Amazon, occasionally posting grouchy comments on a couple forums, watching a bit of youtube, scanning Fox News headlines a couple times a day, peeking at my accounts monthly, looking for my next Ex-lathe on Craigslist, what exactly is Big Data that requires nuc power doing for me?
I agree.
What does anything I don’t buy or don’t use do for me?
You say you watch YouTube. You’re using data centers. You’re visiting FoxNews.com? Data centers. Craigslist? Datacenters again. Going back to my original observation, if you’re on the internet, you’re using data centers. And BTW, AI is finding its way into more and more products and services. Again, we’re talking data centers.
Yeah, I was watching YT 10 years ago. You keep confusing “data centers” with “mega new data centers” that need orders of magnitude more power.
You are standing on a sematic point. I didn’t need huge mega data in the past. I don’t need it now.
There are lots of products I don’t need and won’t use. Are you just a crank that has to speak out against any new idea you don’t like or is there a point?
Don’t use the products. Just don’t buy from the companies building them, or use their services.
Are you just some crank that wants to argue slim semantic points? I’ll take your advice, I’m done arguing with you, bye.
“Maybe I’m just too old, but…”
“Average age USA: 38.7 years”
“Average 401(k) Balances by Age (Vanguard):
Under 25: $7,351
25 to 34: $37,557
35 to 44: $91,281
45 to 54: $168,646”
“Between 2023 and 2024, the US population increased by 0.98%”
Consider AI to be the workforce your children did not birth.
(to pay into Social Security)
I think my 401K would do OK without AI.
Ditto.
You guys are doing okay but the guy down the street’s doctor is going to expect _somebody_ to pay.
Then we’re all doomed. My kids are doing just fine, and grandkids and cousins-the whole brood.
I mowed the lawn today. Never have seen an AI mow the lawn.
Certainly, a growth rate of 12% for electricity consumption outpaces the 3-4% annual growth of energy seen over the past 120 years for all other uses. If continued, electricity for data centers will dominate energy consumption on the planet in about 30 years, and in another 6+ year doubling time, would consume ALL the electricity presently produced. Assuming both growth rates continue, which is unimpeded Malthusian growth, In that same time ‘other uses’ would have also quadrupled, approximately. The component with the largest exponential growth rate eventually dominates. That will be AI-data centers, IF the growth continues.
In the same sense, all the world will eventually become entirely African since that is the only continent with a large positive growth rate, IF the growth continues.
Earlier, Japan and recently, China outgrew the world economically, but as inevitably happens, exponential growth must cease in a finite system. We live in a finite system.
Curiously, the ‘energy transition’ is another process limiting exponential growth. Photovoltaics and wind turbines are growing exponentially (attached WWEA graphic for wind), but produce very little energy and that is erratic. The low, unreliable output then limits the growth in energy per capita, and in turn, limits the population and living standard of the planet. Using IEA data, a much smaller growth is computed (~3%), but that is a mere bagatelle – the growth will fall necessarily to zero (or become negative). That is the real meaning of Net ZERO 2050. Worse, the renewable energy system will fail to meet the energy demands of ordinary humans, much less data centers. The oligarchs will have to choose between their data centers and normal humans.
Guess which wins?
And what does the ITU-WBA report recommend? More required paperwork, of course! Everyone should spend half their days, of not more, filling out this and that form.
They got AI for that now.
I have a wife for that.
What an embarrassing report, all I can see is visions of Baghdad Bob.
“Renewable energy adoption: 23 companies operated on 100 per cent renewable energy in 2023, “. This is not possible if renewable means solar and wind. They must be accessing hydro and/or geothermal.
Humans need the ITU about as much as they need a UTI.