Digital Technology: Friend or Foe against Climate Change?

Digital Technology: Friend or Foe against Climate Change?

Could digital technology be part of the solution to climate change, as well as the problem? ARUN SANKAR AFP/File

From the energy that goes into making smartphones to the fact that even emails create carbon emissions, the world's internet addiction comes with costs to the climate.

But could digital technology be part of the solution to climate change, as well as the problem?

Ahead of next month's COP26 climate talks, AFP looks at five ways in which tech could help to limit the impact.

- Artificial intelligence -

Among the many items on the COP26 agenda, countries are preparing a roadmap for using artificial intelligence (AI) to fight climate change.

AI relies on complex calculations by high-powered computers that can eat up vast quantities of energy.

Training a single AI algorithm system can use nearly five times the emissions produced by a car over its lifetime, according to University of Massachusetts researchers.

But AI is already helping to make a wide range of industrial processes more energy-efficient, simply by making calculations that humans can't.

Consultancy PwC estimates that greater AI use in four key sectors of the economy, including agriculture and transport, could cut global emissions by four percent.

Peter Clutton-Brock, co-founder of the Centre for AI and Climate, said