Climatepublished as isOutside the levels infrastructureInfrastructure, outside the levelsInfrastructure18 entriesFigures published by others, reproduced as they are; they cut across the territories without adding to them.Database structure 
6Territories
5Organisations
4Occupations and activities
3Uses
2Machine operations
1Calculation factorsDigital sector worldwide (reference)
The electricity of the whole digital sector worldwide.
- Selected reference: In 2022, source ITU and World Bank.
- Counted: the electricity of the digital sector according to the ITU and World Bank estimate: networks, data centres and devices.
- Out of scope: the breakdown between networks, data centres and devices, which the summary publishes only in emissions.
Sentence to citeDigital sector worldwide (reference): 567 MtCO2e, figure published by the ITU and the World Bank, for 1,180 TWh of electricity.
Origin of the value
Telecommunications, data centres and devices, estimated by the International Telecommunication Union and the World Bank: about 1,200 TWh in 2022. Its emissions account for 1.7% of the world's.
Comparison with other infrastructure entries
Characteristics
| Unit | 1 year : in 2022 |
|---|---|
| Location | not applicable: a published total does not depend on the location of the servers |
| Counted | the electricity of the digital sector according to the ITU and World Bank estimate: networks, data centres and devices |
| Not counted | the breakdown between networks, data centres and devices, which the summary publishes only in emissions |
| Status | published, 2 readings of the same scope |
All the characteristics
| Identifier | IA-0118, projetcelsius.com/en/ai/database/IA-0118/ |
|---|---|
| Version | 0.1 of 2 November 2026 |
| Category | Infrastructure, published as is |
| Year | 2022 (567 MtCO2e) |
| Choice of the selected value | value taken as it stands from its source, without calculation |
| Sources | ITU and World Bank, 2024 |
| Compared with | Chip manufacturing (984 GWh), Data centres, Ireland (7.66 TWh), Meta (18.4 TWh), Microsoft (37 TWh), Google (43.6 TWh) |
| Licence | CC BY 4.0 |
Result for the chosen case
Sources of the calculation
1 publication, for this entry and those used to calculate it, with the chosen parameters.
Energy and factors
The references of the selected values and of the entries used in this calculation.
ITU and World Bank · 2024
Role and limits : ITU and World Bank
Author. International Telecommunication Union and World Bank
What the publication covers. electricity and emissions of the digital sector: telecommunications, data centres, devices
Reading by the database. The worldwide estimate of two international agencies
Reference of the variant "In 2022"
Scope of the figure used. World, 2022, electricity of the digital sector: telecommunications, data centres, devices
Limit. An estimate; 6.9% increase from 2020 to 2022
Published values
2 figures for the same quantity, each in its own scope.
Electricity
| Source | Date | Electricity | What the figure measures | Scope | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital sector worldwideselected by the database, v0.1 | 2026 | 1,180 TWh | the value selected by the database | same scope | published |
| ITU and World Bank ↗Measuring the Emissions and Energy Footprint of the ICT Sector: Implications for Climate Action (summary) | 2024 | 1,180 TWh | World, 2022, electricity of the digital sector: telecommunications, data centres, devices | same scope | estimated |
CO2e
| Source | Date | CO2e | What the figure measures | Scope | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ITU and World Bank ↗Measuring the Emissions and Energy Footprint of the ICT Sector: Implications for Climate Action (summary) | 2024 | 567 MtCO2e | World, 2022, emissions of the digital sector, 1.7% of the world's emissions | same scope | estimated |
The published figures do not all count the same scope; the scope of each figure is written next to it. Why do the estimates diverge?
Methodology conventions
With their alternatives
| The rule | a published total is reproduced as is, with its year and scope; it is not converted with an average factor and does not add to the database's calculations |
|---|---|
| Calculate a case without an entry | The formula, the default values and a step-by-step example |
History
Entry in version 0.1 of 2 November 2026, in the database in version 0.4
- 2 November 2026Version 0.1 of the entry, as of the date of its current value.
- 31 October 2026Creation of the database, in its first version (0.1).
