Chinese and U.S. tech giants drive most of the digital sector's emissions, UN report finds
Amazon and China Mobile top the list, and the 10 largest emitters alone account for more than half of the sector's operational emissions.
A small group of mostly Chinese and U.S. companies accounts for the bulk of the digital sector's operational emissions, according to a new report from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency for digital technologies, and the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA).
The 50 largest emitters produced 92% of the operational emissions reported by the 200 digital companies assessed for 2024. The top 10 alone released about 163 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, or 54% of the total.
Amazon had the highest operational emissions, about 35 million metric tons, largely from fuel burned by its delivery vans, trucks and aircraft. China Mobile was close behind, mainly because of the electricity used to run its vast telecommunications network.
Companies that disclosed their electricity use consumed 494 terawatt-hours in 2024, about 1.7% of global electricity. Firms based in East Asia and the Pacific used the most power but got only 18.5% of it from renewables, compared with about 68% for North American companies.
The ITU and WBA urged companies to go beyond buying renewable energy certificates on an annual basis and to match their power use with clean electricity available at the same time and place.
This brief is based on reporting by Hannah Alcoseba Fernandez, published Sept. 24, 2026, on Eco-Business. Read the original: https://www.eco-business.com/news/chinese-and-us-tech-firms-drive-bulk-of-digital-power-use-and-emissions-itu-report-finds/
This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by an editor before publication.
