The Polluting Cloud. A Socio-environmental analysis of the Digital Carbon Footprint

The notion of Digital Carbon Footprint refers to the amount of Carbon Dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of an individual's activity, organization or community derived from the use of Information and Communication Technologies. The main objective of this research is to contribute elements to the debate on the high environmental impact of the global digital activity, emphasizing the current context characterized by an increasingly intensive use of interconnected electronic devices as well as digital resources that cloud storage requires. We conclude that the increase in the Digital Carbon Footprint has a high socio-environmental impact, a fact that takes us away from the carbon neutrality indicated by the 2030 Agenda and will only be mitigated as long as it intertwined with new energy management model (renewable energy) that optimize both the infrastructure (date centers) such as the very use of the Internet, as well as the cloud information storage.