The digital sector contributes almost 5% of greenhouse gases (GHG) to the UK’s total GHG emissions, roughly the same level of emissions as the waste sector.
That is the startling finding from our recent study into the environmental impacts of the UK’s digital sector, the first detailed inventory of its kind.
Our independent research was commissioned by the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) and the R&D Science and Analysis Programme at the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) to understand the digital sector’s emissions and how they’re distributed.
With the Government striving to make the UK a top global destination for technology businesses, how can they drive that growth but also achieve our Net Zero targets at the same time?
The first carbon accounting report for the UK’s digital sector
To better understand the answer to that question, we teamed up with the University of Cambridge and the University of Bristol to deliver a focussed analysis of the digital sector’s emissions. Using our carbon accounting expertise, we scrutinised the industry’s electricity consumption, GHG emissions and wider environmental impacts. We examined ‘embodied’ impacts (i.e. manufacturing, distribution, and end-of-life treatment) as well as ‘use stage’ impacts (i.e. the operation of digital infrastructure and hardware).
Our study showed that the digital sector contributes 19.28 Mt CO2e to the UK’s GHG emissions and 4.75% of the UK territorial GHG emissions when compared to 2021 ONS statistics. This amounts to roughly the same level of emissions as those from the waste sector but significantly less than the transport sector. User devices contribute around half of all emissions, with data centres at 35% and networks at 13%.
If the UK is to stand a chance of hitting Net Zero targets by 2050, then organisations need to urgently tackle digital decarbonisation. Our report provides crucial evidence to inform future action and policy recommendations.
Read the summary report
Click here to read the summary report which includes a link to the full published Data Driven Report. If you have further questions or would like to discuss the findings, please email Vinesh Vegad (v.vegad@fnc.co.uk), Consultant, Sustainability and Environmental Assurance Team.
