What does digitalization have to do with climate protection, and can it contribute to sustainability? Sure, with increasing digitalization, less paper will be used, and fewer trees will be cut down for letters and other documents. But what about the electricity that computers need to write emails? How was the smartphone manufactured, what rare raw materials were extracted for it, and what emissions were produced in the process?
Anyone who takes a close look at the intersection of digitalization and sustainability will quickly realize: it's complicated. "AI data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity and water. The International Energy Agency estimates that artificial intelligence will account for about 3% of total global energy consumption by 2030. That's remarkable, especially when you consider that hundreds of millions of people still have no access to electricity," Virginie Cauderary, PhD student at the HPI d-school, explains. She researches the emissions that companies release along the entire value chain. In the interview, she explains why so-called scope 3 emissions are crucial and what kind of political changes need to take place.
