In a few decades, the Internet has transformed the way we live, work, and connect. Ranging from watching movies on an on-demand basis to running businesses in the cloud and using artificial intelligence tools in our daily routine of work, digital facilities have become part of our everyday life. But while these technologies appear user-friendly, the systems that power them tell a distinct narrative.
Underneath the elegant user experience is a vast amount of physical infrastructure—data centres, servers, and networks—that runs ceaselessly, consuming enormous quantities of electric power. As our digital world expands, so does our carbon footprint, faster than most people are aware.
This article explores two major players in the digital economy, streaming and cloud computing, and looks at their contribution to overall emissions, what the numbers actually mean, and the ways we can start reducing the environmental impact of the Internet.
The Power Behind the Internet: What It Really Takes to Stay Online
Every click, message, or video streamed relies on the data that has to be stored, processed, and transferred. All of these activities occur within data centres, enormous premises packed with servers that operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to guarantee the regular operation of the Internet.
But reliability comes at a cost. According to an MIT Press Reader report of 2023, data centers worldwide use about 200 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity annually. This is roughly 1 percent of the planet’s total electricity demand and about 0.3 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, a number that is set to increase as our digital service appeal grows.
And it is not just servers that consume energy. Cooling systems, required to avoid overheating of all devices, can use up to 40 percent of a data centre’s energy. As artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data-intensive software applications grow, the pressure on these systems and the planet will only increase.
Streaming’s Invisible Emissions: Why Watching Videos Isn’t as Green as It Seems
Streaming has rapidly become a popular way to consume media. Platforms like Netflix, YouTube, TikTok, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ make it easy to simply watch what we want, when we want. But very few people think of what happens behind the scenes when they hit ‘play’.
According to the Carbon Trust, spending an hour watching video-on-demand in Europe generates about 55 grams of CO₂ equivalent. This may not seem like a lot when you do not consider how many people stream content every minute of every day.
The device used also plays a significant role. While streaming on a large-screen LED TV can consume over 55 grams of CO₂ per hour, watching on a smartphone can consume less than 1 gram. Choices such as screen size, video resolution, and streaming frequency influence the total environmental impact.
And it is not only about video on demand. Live streaming, especially in ultra-high-definition formats such as 4K, puts even more pressure on servers and networks. As more new technologies such as virtual reality and the metaverse continue to evolve, energy demand is expected to increase dramatically in the upcoming years.
Cloud Computing: Powering Business Innovation with a Carbon Caveat
Cloud storage can be used for many purposes: from enabling remote collaboration to file storage, from implementing AI to extremely flexible, highly scalable SaaS platforms. It brings flexibility, accessibility and cost-effectiveness, so for this reason many companies nowadays rely heavily on this technology. The environmental trade-offs, however, are often overlooked.
The cloud centralises energy use in a limited number of larger facilities, replacing storage and processing capacity in huge remote data centres. It is estimated that cloud-associated data centres use about 1.8 per cent of the country’s electricity. The carbon footprint of cloud computing approaches that of global aviation, especially in regions where fossil fuels still generate energy.
A large AI model can require enormous computing resources over a long period of time, which is further complicated by AI and high-performance computing. If nothing is done, the carbon footprint of cloud computing could increase significantly in the years to come.
A single hyperscale data centre, such as those used by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, can consume as much electricity as 50,000 homes per year. These facilities work around the clock, supporting everything from cloud-based games to business analytics.
The rapid increase in demand, driven by remote working, increased automation and digital transformation, risks outstripping the efforts we are making to prevent pollution and over-consumption, even though some major cloud providers have committed to carbon neutrality and renewable energy targets.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has proved to be very useful in recent times, but it brings with it additional challenges. The computing power and energy required to train a large language model or neural network is immense. A 2019 study by researchers at UMass Amherst estimated that training a single AI model can produce the equivalent of 284 metric tonnes of CO₂ emissions, equal to the emissions of five different cars over their lifetime.
Mitigation Strategies: Reducing the Internet’s Environmental Impact
Greener Data Centres
Energy consumption in data centres could be drastically reduced thanks to technological innovation. New advanced cooling techniques help optimise performance and minimise waste. Some of those are liquid immersion cooling, outside air economisation and artificial intelligence-based energy management systems. In order to reduce power demand, regular hardware upgrades, server consolidation and energy-efficient processors could be used.
Colder regions of the planet are being increasingly used for the building of new data centres, in this way the usage of intensive cooling can be reduced because the environmental climate is lending a helping hand in reducing the temperature. Others are experimenting with underwater data centres or heat recycling systems that transfer waste heat to nearby buildings.
Transitioning to Renewable Energy
In recent years, renewable energies are acquiring more and more importance even at a corporate level. Firms like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Meta have committed to running their operations with 100% renewable energy. Particularly, the company settled in Mountain View claims to have matched its electricity use with the purchase of renewable energy since 2017 and, based on their plans and expectations, they will reach a carbon-free energy supply by 2030.
However, this is not enough, a worldwide shift towards a more sustainable way of manners is needed. The reliance on coal or natural gas, to fuel power grids, is still very common in different regions, so their data centres keep on generating high emissions. One solution could be the usage of new technologies and energy-efficient methods. In order to power the digital world more sustainably, supporting investments in solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower infrastructure are also needed.
Responsible User Behaviour
Individual choices, although difficult to imagine, can have a significant impact on the environment and pollution. These are some examples of good practices:
• Streaming in standard definition (SD), instead of the widespread high definition (HD), can reduce data use by over 80%.
• Downloading content for offline use instead of streaming repeatedly reduces bandwidth and energy needs.
• Turning off unused devices, enabling power-saving modes, regularly cleaning up cloud storage can all help reduce demand on data infrastructure.
• In countries where 5G networks are still relatively power-consuming, using Wi-Fi instead of mobile data is also more energy-efficient.
Regulation and Policy Support
The role of governments and international institutions is crucial. Systematic changes could be driven by enacting energy efficiency standards for data centres, promoting emissions reporting requirements or funding research into green computing technologies.
Tax incentives or subsidies can also be provided by politicians to companies that adopt renewable energy or develop sustainable ICT (Information and Communication Technology) infrastructures. Even public awareness campaigns are important in order to encourage consumers to make more informed digital choices.
A Sustainable Digital Future
The internet has brought extraordinary benefits, especially in reshaping global economies and democratising access to information. But its environmental cost can no longer be ignored, since its effects on the environment are immense. Data centres and digital services consume growing amounts of energy, but the real problem is that this energy does not even derive from renewable sources. Streaming and cloud computing, while convenient and transformative, entail hidden ecological consequences.
Fortunately, there is a way forward. One solution can be decoupling digital growth from carbon emissions through technological innovation, regulatory support and more mindful digital behavior. Even though the internet could be recognised as an immaterial force, it is deeply rooted in physical infrastructure, which has very real consequences, so recognising its real nature would help us better understand its impact and our responsibility.
In a world that is increasingly connected, let’s ensure that our digital progress goes hand-in-hand with environmental sustainability. The choices we make today—individually and collectively—can shape a greener, cleaner digital future for generations to come.
Written by Luca De Giorgi and Aurora Fontana
References
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-staggering-ecological-impacts-of-computation-and-the-cloud
https://watershed.com/blog/carbon-in-the-cloud
