Scope
Kamiya (links below [1], [2]) highlights the importance of using accurate and up-to-date data to assess the environmental impact of digital activities. The paper corrects past overestimations of streaming video’s carbon footprint, explores the varying energy consumption of different devices and proposes energy efficiency incentives.
Summary
Energy consumption and carbon footprint of streaming video had been overestimated in the past, based on data-based energy intensity measurements, exaggerating the actual climate impact by up to 90-times. Following time-based energy intensity measurements, those values have been corrected (Kamiya, 2020a), (Kamiya, 2020b). For example, the IEA estimates for one hour of streaming video to correspond to 36 grams of CO2 (gCO2), down from the previous estimate of 82 gCO2.
TVs consume much more energy than laptops and smartphones, which are battery powered and thus highly energy efficient. For example, a 50-inch LED television consumes much more electricity than a smartphone (100times) or laptop (5 times).
On the other hand, carbon footprint depends on the energy mix. For example, in France 90% of electricity comes from low-carbon sources. Thus, consumers, companies, and governments can help reduce the carbon footprint of digital technologies and services, by proposing energy efficiency incentives including:
- changing viewing device from TV to smarphone or tablet / laptop (Kamiya, 2020b)
- shifting videos to audio, when playing in the background (Kamiya, 2020b)
Those policies could be proposed only to peak energy consumption intensity hours coming from high-carbon sources. New EU rules (June 2023) about accessing smart meter data and the new emissions trading scheme (ETS2) could assist on that.
Relevance for EXIGENCE
The conclusions of these two papers can be directly used in the context of EXIGENCE. Specifically, EXIGENCE can include incentives related to changing viewing device from TV to smarphone or tablet / laptop or shifting videos to audio, when playing in the background, to considerably enhance energy efficiency. Considering carbon footprint reduction, the energy mix should be also taken into account.
[1] G. Kamiya, “Factcheck: What is the carbon footprint of streaming video on Netflix?,” Carbon Brief, Mar. 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-what-is-the-carbon-footprint-of-streaming-video-on-netflix
[2] G. Kamiya, “The carbon footprint of streaming video: Fact-checking the headlines,” IEA, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.iea.org/commentaries/the-carbon-footprint-of-streaming-video-fact-checking-the-headlines
