Screentime is not green

While excessive screentime may be detrimental to one’s health, it is also a concern for the planet. Since 2007 the number of mobile phone subscribers worldwide grew nearly threefold and the amount of data traffic across both wireless and fixed line networks grew more than 40 times. Although the energy usage of the information, communications, and technology (ICT) sectors grew from 710 terra Watt hours (TWh) in 2007 to 915 TWh is 2020, the sector’s share of energy usage at 4% and share of greenhouse gas emissions at 1.4% has remained roughly flat. End user devices, including phones, computers, tablets, and other connected electronics, account for 54% of ICT sector energy use and data centers account for 20%. While the rise of AI could lead to a 73% increase in data center energy use according the International Energy Agency, efficiency gains may limit the impact. For instance, although graphical processing units (GPUs) consume more power, leading-edge models perform nearly 18 times more calculations per second than a top-performing central processing unit (CPU).

Source: Ericsson, International Telecommunications Union, 2023