IPCC report and sustainable ICT

The 6th report of the IPCC is out for a few weeks now, so let's review some of the points shown in it.

IPCC report

I have read the report synthesis, and here are some parts from the study.

State of the art

Global surface temperature was 1.09 °C higher in 2011-2020 than 1850-1900.[...] Global surface temperature in the first two decades of the 21st century(2001-2020) was 0.99 higher than 1850-1900. Global temperature has increased faster since 1970 than in any other 50-year period over at least the last 2000 years.
A.1.1, page 4 of the report

Historical cumulative net CO2 emissions from 1850 to 2019 were 2400 +/- 240 GtCO2 of which more than half (58%) occurred between 1850 and 1989, and about 42% occurred between 1990 and 2019.
A.1.3, page 4 of the report

In 2019, around 35% of the global population live in countries emitting more than 9 tCO2-eq per capita while 41% live in countries emitting less than 3 tCO2-eq per capita.
A.1.5, page 5 of the report

Approximately 3.3-3.6 billion people live in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change.
A.2.2, page 5 of the report

Climate change has reduced food security and affected water security, hindering efforts to meet Sustainable Development Goals.
A.2.4, page 5 of the report

Roughly half of the world's population currently experience severe water scarcity for at least part of the year due to a combination of climatic and non-climatic drivers.
A.2.4, page 6 of the report

Economic damages from climate change have been detected in climate-exposed sectors, such as agriculture, forestry, fishery, energy and tourism. Individual livelihoods have been affected through, for example, destruction of homes and infrastructures, and loss of property and income, human health and food security.
A.2.6, page 6 of the report

Current progress

Adaptation planning and implementation have progressed across all sectors and regions, with documented benefits and varying effectiveness. Despite progresses, adaptation gaps exist and will continue to grow.
A.3, page 8 of the report

Growing public and political awareness of climate impacts and risks has resulted in at least 170 countries and many cities including adaptation in their climate policies and planning processes
A.3.1, page 8 of the report

Global GHG emissions in 2030 implied by nationally determined contributions announced by October 2021 make it likely that warming will exceed 1.5 °C during the 21st century and make it harder to limit warming below 2 °C.
A.4, page 10 of the report

In many countries, policies have enhanced energy efficiency, reduced rates of deforestation and accelerated technology deployment, leading to avoided and in some cases reduced or removed emissions. [...] At least 18 countries have sustained absolute production-bases GHG and consumption-based CO2 reductions for longer than 10 years.
A.4.1, page 10 of the report

Without a strengthening of policies, global warming of 3.2 °C is projected by 2100.
A.4.4, page 11 of the report

Public and private finance flows for fossil fuels are still greater than those for climate adaptation and mitigation.
A.4.5, page 11 of the report

Due to relative sea-level rise, current 1-in-100 year extreme sea-level events are projected to occur at least annually in more than half of all tide gauge locations by 2100 under all considered scenarios.
B.1.4, page 13 of the report

Climate-driven food insecurity and supply instability, for example, are projected to increase with increasing global warming, interacting with non-climatic risk drivers such as competition for land between urban expansion and food production, pandemics and conflict.
B.2.3, page 15 of the report

Some future changes are unavoidable and/or irreversible but can be limited by deep, rapid and sustained global greenhouse gas emissions reduction.
B.3, page 19 of the report

Technological innovation can have trade-offs such as new and greater environmental impacts, social inequalities, overdependence on foreign knowledge and providers, distributional impacts and rebound effects.
C.7.5, page 36 of the report

My take on this report

It would be best if everyone takes a look at the report, but here is the main points I highlighted during my study of the document.
As we can see, even if the temperature stays around +1.5 °C by 2100, the impacts and consequences will be huge, and with the current state of affairs and policies in the majority of the countries around the world, we could be much higher than this limit...
It's great to speak about climate change and all that, but we work in the digital, we are an impalpable sector after all, we nearly all are in the Cloud !
Hum, yeah... What if I told you that digital represents 4% of the global human footprint ? Not that much, right ? What about global aerial transport, which has been pretty set on fire in the past years for its global warming potential ? It represents 2% of our footprint...
Digital is a monster, eating the resources on Earth, and leaves desolation behind. Experts on the subject conducted multiple studies on the impact of digital, in France, Europe and worldwide, by LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) which is a standardised method to quantitatively assess environmental impacts, and maybe the only one recognised internationally.
This method takes into account 16 impact factors, including Global Warming Potential. But it is not the only one where our work may cause major impacts.
For a number of years now, the work of developers completely lost the sight of the performance side of our softwares. We are overwhelmed by the new functionalities, the budgets, the short deadlines and other elements that make our work a mess. As another vicious part, servers and computers are now so much more powerful that we do not see the interest of working on performance.
But some users still have old computers, old smartphones, and cannot use our beautiful softwares and apps because they cannot handle it. It forces users to constantly buy new phones, new computers, etc. which is where most of the impacts are concentrated.
To see what kind of impacts digital has on Earth, I invite you to read the LCA available in the resources at the bottom of this article, for it would be impossible to talk about every impact factor here, and the work has already been done.
So what can we do ? First of all, let's take a break and ask ourselves, do we really need this new notification ? Do we need this flashy news displayed on our home page ? As professionals, we should always keep in mind that our work is not to add some crap on the existing layer of crap. We should be able to advise our clients, and help them be more efficient, and more conscious of their impacts. And sometimes, you'll see that your new webapp could simply be replaced by a simple SMS...

In conclusion, just like scientists have a duty to protect life, biodiversity and our mother Earth, we, as experts in computer science have a duty to leave enough resources to our children to continue to discover new things and explore new areas. We shall not forget that in 1969, men were sent to the Moon and came back with a global Information System less powerful than the smartphone in our pocket, so why can't we do what we do every day with fewer resources and leave some space and capacity to our children ?

Resources

https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/
https://www.greenit.fr/impacts-environnementaux-du-numerique-en-france/
https://www.greenit.fr/le-numerique-en-europe-une-approche-des-impacts-environnementaux-par-lanalyse-du-cycle-de-vie/
https://www.greenit.fr/empreinte-environnementale-du-numerique-mondial/