ITU: Digital is Driving Climate Action. So Why Don’t Climate Plans Count Its Emissions?
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure | SDG 13: Climate Action
Institutions: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY); Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC)
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) report, “Digital technologies in NDCs: Stocktake and analysis,” examines 53 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) with 2035 targets and finds that nearly 90% of the countries plan to leverage digital technologies for climate action. Digital solutions are overwhelmingly seen as implementation levers, primarily for monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems, digital decision-support, and multi-hazard early-warning systems. Furthermore, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an emerging focus, included in the plans of roughly 20% of NDCs for optimization and enhanced forecasting.
The analysis highlights a critical governance and policy gap related to the dual role of technology: while there is a strong commitment to “greening by digital” (using technology to cut other sectors’ emissions), the sector widely fails to account for its own environmental impact. The underlying structural problem is that the digital sector is not treated as a distinct entity with separate mitigation targets; instead, its growing GHG emissions from networks, data centers, and devices are scattered and invisible across broader IPCC categories (Energy, IPPU, and Waste), meaning the sector’s required “green digital” mitigation targets are invisible in NDCs.
This invisibility persists despite the sector’s footprint being comparable to others like waste. Consequently, the ITU recommends strengthening implementation frameworks, exploring a sectoral approach, and measuring the net impact of digitalization to ensure accountability and maintain credibility in national climate pledges.
The massive reliance on digital solutions in NDCs requires Indian ministries to move beyond aspiration by quantifying and integrating the digital sector’s emissions within national climate strategies (Green Digital). Failure to adopt “net-impact accounting” (quantifying enablement gains vs. own emissions) risks over-claiming climate success and enabling a hidden surge in energy demand from the rapid expansion of AI and data infrastructure.
What is the core policy distinction between “greening by digital” and “green digital”?→ “Greening by digital” refers to leveraging digital tools (AI, IoT, smart grids) to reduce emissions and enhance efficiency in other sectors (e.g., energy, transport, agriculture). “Green digital” refers to the urgent, parallel effort to reduce the digital sector’s own environmental footprint, including decarbonizing data centers and connectivity networks and addressing device end-of-life emissions. The report stresses the need for simultaneous action on both.
Follow the full report here: ITU Publications: Digital technologies in NDCs: Stocktake and analysis