Hiding greenhouse gas emissions in the cloud
File(s)
Author(s)
Mytton, David
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Data centres account for 1% of total global electricity demand but this may grow to between 15-30% of electricity consumption in some countries by 2030. The majority of this growth is attributed to cloud computing, particularly the larg-est “hyperscale” vendors. IT emissions previously accounted for under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Scope 1 and Scope 2 move to Scope 3 when outsourced to the cloud. However, the data needed to complete those calculations is not available from cloud vendors. Further, since Scope 3 emissions tend to be reported only voluntarily and the emissions are aggregated into the global emissions reporting by the large cloud vendors, this can result in emissions being hidden when they are moved to the cloud.
Date Issued
2020-07-13
Date Acceptance
2020-06-08
Citation
Nature Climate Change, 2020, 10 (108), pp.701-701
ISSN
1758-678X
Publisher
Nature Research
Start Page
701
End Page
701
Journal / Book Title
Nature Climate Change
Volume
10
Issue
108
Copyright Statement
© 2020 The Author(s). The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0837-6
Identifier
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0837-6
Subjects
Cloud Computing
Environment
Greenhouse Effect
Climate Change
Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2020-07-13