The growth of cloud computing could cause a huge increase in greenhouse gas emissions, Greenpeace has warned.
In a new report, ‘Make IT Green: Cloud Computing and its Contribution to Climate Change’, Greenpeace estimates that, at current growth rates, data centres and telecommunication networks will consume about 1,963 billion kilowatt hours of electricity by 2020 – more than triple their current consumption.
Greenpeace picks out the growth of “quintessential cloud computing devices” like Apple’s iPad as part of the problem, as they give users constant access to social networks and other online tools.