Environmental Sustainability and the Digital Revolution: A Systematic Review of the ICT and its Environmental Impact

Résumé

This report provides an overview and discussion of the current knowledge of the information and communications technology (ICT) sector’s effect on global warming, and policies to address this effect. A systematic literature review is conducted that shows that much focus in the literature has been on data centers, the amount of data processed, and the resulting green house gas emissions. The review also shows recent research on data services and traffic (e.g. video streaming), but limited research into how economic policies can mitigate the environmental impacts from data usage.