Government departments made progress in reducing their CO2 emissions from ICT and volumes of e-waste during 2023-24, according to the new Greening Government Commitments ICT report.
Published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which leads the effort for more sustainable ICT in central government, it also points to the challenge in maintaining the progress as the sector increases its use of digital technology.
It estimates that CO2 emissions from government ICT totalled 342,874 tonnes over 2023-24– which it describes as having a significant environmental impact – down by 8% from the 2022-23 level of 373,787 tonnes.
The main sources of emissions were end user devices – especially from the carbon in their manufacture and distribution – peripheral IT equipment and data centres. The largest proportion of the emissions are defined as coming under Scope 3.
Departments varied in their performance on emissions, with HM Treasury achieving the biggest reduction over the year at 47.8%, followed by the Department for Health and Social Care at 35.1%. Some others showed significant increases, notably the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government at 72.4% and the Ministry of Justice at 46.1%.
e-Waste reduction
The volume of reported government e-waste totaled 1,491 tonnes, down by 17% from the 1,800 tonnes of previous year and the lowest level since 2021. Of this, 34% was reused, down from 41%, while 63% was recycled, up from 50%.
The main reasons for recycling rather than reusing e-waste have been the incompatibility of waste components with new technologies, often driven by extending the pre-waste lifecycle of devices, and a limited market demand for reused devices.
The report acknowledges problems in collecting reliable data from all departments and their suppliers, due largely to the use of different methodologies; but it also says that overall reporting of the data has increased, with 69 departments, agencies and government bodies taking part, up from 56 the previous year.
It adds that there will be an effort to improve the tooling for reporting on the indicators and to clarify the methodology used, particularly for Scope 3 emissions – those that do not come from activities or assets owned or controlled by government, but from other parts of its value chain.
Steady improvement
Chris Howes, chief digital and information officer at Defra, said: “I feel the picture is one of steady, though not dramatic, improvement in the data reported. Of course, there are still acknowledged limitations in this data – in particular, because, like almost every organisation, in every sector, calculating supply chain Scope 3 emissions is extremely challenging to do accurately.
“But the data reported does show reductions in CO2 emissions and volumes of e-waste generated by government IT. We should acknowledge the hard work done by digital teams across the country to help deliver these improvements and be encouraged by them as we face important challenges ahead.
“These challenges continue to grow, as the increasing digitisation of government continues to create upward pressure on emissions and waste targets, as well as risking wider planetary impacts such as those on water use and biodiversity.
“We have seen recent examples of how increasing demand for AI and other energy-heavy computing has led to rapid rises in CO2 emissions from the data centres needed to power this exciting new technology.
“These are important issues for us to address, and the only way we will succeed is by building on the step change in collaboration between departments and with suppliers and other experts.”
