Chinese and United States-based companies account for most of the climate pollution produced by the day-to-day running of the digital sector, from data centres and telecom networks to factories and corporate vehicle fleets, according to a new study by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA).
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The 50 largest emitters generated 92 per cent of the operational emissions reported by 200 digital companies assessed in the report, Greening Digital Companies 2026.
The ITU is the United Nations agency for information and communication technologies, while the WBA is a nonprofit that evaluates major companies’ contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The 10 biggest emitters alone produced about 163 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) in 2024, or 54 per cent of all Scope 1 and Scope 2 location-based emissions, the study found.
“This concentration underscores the influence that a small group of companies holds in shaping the overall climate impact of the sector,” said the report, which tracks emissions, energy use and climate commitments across 200 leading digital companies, using 2024 – the latest year with full data – as its reference period.
US tech and retail giant Amazon recorded the highest operational emissions at about 35 million tCO2e. This was driven largely by direct, or Scope 1, emissions from its extensive physical operations, including fossil fuel use in delivery fleets, freight trucks and aircraft; boilers and generators; and refrigerants used to cool data centres, fulfilment centres, offices and grocery stores, noted the report.
Scope 1 and 2 emissions of the top 50 digital companies in 2024, with the top 10 emitters accounting for 54 per cent of total emissions. Image: ITU
Major state-owned telecoms firm China Mobile followed closely. While its direct Scope 1 emissions were relatively low, its large electricity-related, or Scope 2, emissions – mainly from operating its vast telecommunications network – pushed its total operational footprint close to Amazon’s.
China Telecom, China Unicom, Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent and JD.com featured among the companies with the sector’s biggest reported power demand or operational emissions. They appeared alongside US technology, telecoms, semiconductor and data centre companies such as Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, AT&T, Intel, Verizon, Oracle and Equinix.
Beyond Chinese and US companies, 16 of the 50 largest reported operational emitters were headquartered elsewhere in Asia, led by Japan and South Korea.
The report found that electricity demand was similarly concentrated. Of the 163 companies that disclosed electricity consumption, total use reached 494 TWh in 2024 – equivalent to about 1.7 per cent of global electricity consumption. The 10 largest electricity users accounted for 269 TWh, or 54 per cent of all reported electricity consumption.
East Asia’s renewable power gap
Companies headquartered in East Asia and the Pacific accounted for the largest share of both total energy use and electricity demand. They reported 349.1 TWh of total energy consumption and 289.3 TWh of electricity use in 2024, ahead of North American companies, which reported 213.7 TWh of total energy and 190.4 TWh of electricity consumption.
China’s share of the East Asia and Pacific total is not separately reported. However, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom alone used a combined 119 TWh of total energy in 2024 – about one-third of the region’s 349.1 TWh total among companies assessed.
Together, the two regions accounted for more than 80 per cent of reported electricity use. But their renewable energy profiles differed sharply.
East Asia and the Pacific reported a renewable electricity share of only 18.5 per cent, despite having the highest reported power demand. North America, by comparison, reported 129.3 TWh of renewable electricity, equivalent to about 68 per cent of its electricity consumption.
Digital companies including Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta have consistently ranked among the world’s largest corporate purchasers of renewable energy, helping drive investment in wind and solar generation and contributing to substantial reductions in reported market-based Scope 2 emissions, said the study.
The difference reflects grid conditions, the availability of renewable energy procurement tools and differences in corporate reporting, the report added.
For instance, Chinese data centres still rely mainly on grid electricity, and constraints in power-market design and the limited ability to shift workloads to cleaner regions complicate renewable integration, according to a recent study by Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.
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Rather than focusing exclusively on the volume of renewable electricity purchased over a year, companies are increasingly being asked to consider when and where clean electricity is available.
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA)
Separately, the ITU and WBA warned that annual renewable energy certificates and power purchase agreements do not necessarily show that a facility was physically powered by low-carbon electricity when and where it operated.
The ITU and WBA called on digital companies to strengthen disclosure and move beyond annual renewable energy matching toward cleaner electricity aligned with when and where power is used.
The report cited how Google has committed to operating on 24/7 carbon-free energy across all of its data centres and campuses by 2030, while Microsoft has similarly committed to achieving 100 per cent carbon-free electricity consumption on a time-matched basis by 2030.
“Rather than focusing exclusively on the volume of renewable electricity purchased over a year, companies are increasingly being asked to consider when and where clean electricity is available,” the study said.
“Achieving high levels of hourly carbon-free energy matching may require investments in energy storage, flexible demand, advanced forecasting, geographic diversification and workload optimisation to align electricity demand with clean energy supply,” it added.
