Ester Kovandova

MEASURING ICT’S IMPACTS ON ECONOMY-WIDE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS IS ESSENTIAL FOR EFFECTIVE DECARBONISATION POLICY

Abstract:
As part of its race to reach Net Zero, the European Union requires companies to measure and report the “scope 1, 2 and 3” emissions generated by their activities. This reporting standard however only measures emissions for which a company is directly responsible. It does not account for the spillover effects of one sector’s activities on another sector’s emissions.

The ITU, recognising that these spillovers are particularly significant for the ICT sector, has issued Recommendation L. 1480 which provides a framework for ICT companies to understand and measure their activities’ effects on other sectors’ emissions.

This paper argues that it may be more effective, in terms of informing decarbonisation policy, for these spillovers to be measured at an aggregate, sector level, rather than at a company level. This is because the ability to robustly measure such spillover effects at the company level is likely to vary greatly from one company to another. The paper then builds on the ITU Recommendation L. 1480’s methodology by offering an economic modelling approach, based in statistical analysis, to do so.