Will new technologies be able to clean up the planet?

• At Station F, in Paris, on Wednesday, Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, resumed his goal of achieving carbon neutrality in ten years and offsetting its cumulative impact since its creation in 1975.

• At the same time, Microsoft announced the creation of the Environmental Start-up Accelerator, an acceleration program that will support around ten European start-ups working on reducing and offsetting carbon emissions.

• Will the new technologies of the future be able to clean up the planet?

Microsoft is doing everything to "save" the planet. In the middle of COP26 in Glasgow, Brad Smith, the president of the digital giant, made strong announcements at Station F, in Paris, on Wednesday. In addition to the goal of achieving carbon neutrality in ten years and offsetting its cumulative impact since its creation in 1975, Microsoft announced the creation of the Environmental Start-up Accelerator, in partnership with Station F, Ademe and Capgemini, notably. The acceleration program will support around ten European start-ups working on reducing and offsetting carbon emissions. Will the new technologies of the future be able to clean up the planet? In short, are we saved?

"If we want to save the planet, we're going to need technologies that don't yet exist," said Brad Smith. There will be technologies of the future, companies of the future and industries of the future that do not yet exist ”. And the president of Microsoft focused on four technologies that must be developed: green hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel, energy storage and CO2 capture in the air. "Today, digital represents 4% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide," added Côme Perpère, director of sustainable development and transformation of Microsoft France. The aviation sector is half the emissions from the digital sector. If we represent 4% of emissions, there are 96% of emissions that are not linked to digital, ”he continued.

A systemic crisis

Microsoft's approach sees digital as being able to provide a solution for the remaining 96%.

"Once everyone has measured [thanks to the measurement tool on which Microsoft works], the subject will be to reduce and compensate," Côme Perpère said.

We need to be upstream of these phases to promote innovation in reduction and compensation.

We realized that apart from replanting trees, there is not much ”.

On paper, Microsoft's profession of faith sells dreams.

We would even allow ourselves to fantasize that digital players, great saviors of the future, will allow us to stay below 2 ° C of global warming.

It's okay, we can sleep soundly… Except that Microsoft seems to forget that the planet is facing a systemic crisis.

“What is dangerous is that today's tech players have a discourse focused on greenhouse gases, observes Frédéric Bordage, author of

(Actes sud). However, there are 23 major environmental crises associated with digital technology. Humanity has 23 holes at the bottom of its boat and, by dint of concentrating on just one hole, we are going to sink ”.

Beyond the carbon footprint, there is the acidification of water and soil, eutrophication of aquatic environments, photochemical oxidation, the depletion of abiotic resources ... "Even if humanity, thanks to technology, would be able to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, this does not resolve the systemic problem linked to the environment, ”he continues. "We cannot be content to wait for technologies to" save "the planet, we have to change our uses, adds Isabelle Albert, author of

(G9 + Institute). There are always two sides of the same coin. On the other hand, new technologies allow us to change our behavior but also to become aware of our environmental impact ”.

Digital technology, a critical resource

On the stack side, there is the rebound effect.

A new technology creates new needs which are such that the technological solution no longer makes it possible to compensate for the ecological effects.

“For example, we say that the mall saves a car, that of the postman.

But in reality, we have never seen so many delivery men in Paris as today.

There are fewer letters but still more parcels, because digital platforms like Amazon, Deliveroo have created new consumption habits.

Digital technology is not a substitute for life, it is added to life ”, described the journalist Guillaume Pitron during the publication of his book

(Les Liens qui libéré), last September.

We'll have to skip the second.

“Let's use digital technology to do calculations, model the climate, use scanners to treat ourselves,” continues Frédéric Bordage.

It's great if it helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions to do things that we don't know how to do otherwise.

Digital technology is a critical, non-renewable resource that will be exhausted in thirty years [it relies on the extraction of limited resources such as critical metals and rare earths].

The subject is how to save digital technology ”.

For the founder of Green IT, which brings together independent experts in responsible digital, we must combine low-tech with high-tech and, of course, shake up our behavior.

Find the Future (s) section here

The good news is that changing our consumption habits requires awareness.

However, according to the OpinonWay survey for Microsoft France, 55% of French people say they are personally concerned about digital pollution, with heightened concern among young people and workers.

If the American giant is starting from afar, it remains one of the tech players most committed to the environmental issue.

And he should prove it again in the next few years.

It remains to find a way to consume (a lot) less.

Culture

"It's impressive, no one knows the ecological cost of a like", wonders Guillaume Pitron.

Planet

Hidden face of digital: How to measure the environmental impact of our activities on the Web?

• Microsoft

• Start-up

• Innovation

• Global warming

• Planet

• Greenhouse gas

• Carbon

• Future (s)

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