The Vice President of the EU Commission, Margrethe Vestager, has pointed out the enormous energy consumption of the Internet and its consequences for climate change.
Due to further digitization, consumption will increase, the 51-year-old Danish politician told the newspapers of the Funke media group (Sunday). "When you watch movies on the internet, for example, it is very energy-intensive. Or take the server hubs that need air conditioning."
This is a major challenge for the EU's goal of making the continent climate-neutral by 2050. "So we have to develop technologies with the Green Deal to minimize energy consumption and improve energy efficiency." On the other hand, the fight against climate change cannot be won without digital solutions.
According to estimates by the electricity supplier Eon, streaming platforms such as YouTube and Netflix alone, but also video conferencing with Skype and other services, are now consuming around 200 billion kilowatt hours of electricity worldwide each year. Last year, the streaming platforms would have used about as much electricity as all private households in Germany, Italy and Poland combined.