{"id":36960,"date":"2020-04-15T10:34:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T10:34:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-06-20T16:57:53","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T16:57:53","slug":"11960-the-climate-cost-of-china-s-digital-infrastructure-rush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/energy\/11960-the-climate-cost-of-china-s-digital-infrastructure-rush\/","title":{"rendered":"The climate cost of China\u2019s digital infrastructure rush"},"content":{"rendered":"

A slowing economy and the coronavirus pandemic has prompted China\u2019s leadership to call<\/a> for faster construction of \u201cneo-infrastructure\u201d such as data centres and 5G networks, to stabilise investment and provide high-quality growth.<\/p>\n

The concept of \u201cneo-infrastructure\u201d arose in a Central Economic Work Conference in late 2018, to refer to digitalisation and smart technology, as opposed to traditional infrastructure like roads and railways. The coronavirus pandemic has pushed the idea to new prominence.<\/p>\n

But the energy and climate impacts need to be considered. Construction of data centres and 5G networks should be low-carbon and based on market demand, not blind enthusiasm. The government should continue overseeing data centre expansion and energy efficiency improvements, and steer the sector towards greater use of renewable energy. This will aid the economic recovery in the near term and provide sustainable growth for the long term.<\/p>\n

Neo-infrastructure expansion<\/h2>\n

Last June, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology began issuing 5G licences. Commercial use followed in October and investment expanded rapidly. The ministry\u2019s own statistics<\/a> for 2019 show 130,000 5G base stations installed by the end of that year, with user numbers increasing by one million a month.<\/p>\n

The year will be\u00a0crucial for the 5G roll-out. Nineteen provinces<\/a> list \u201cpromoting construction of 5G networks\u201d as a key priority, and over 200<\/a> provincial-level policy documents on 5G have been published. The three major mobile operators \u2013 China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom \u2013 along with state-owned telecommunication tower firm China Tower, will invest 197.3 billion yuan ($28 billion) in 5G networks. Around 550,000 base stations, covering all prefecture-level cities<\/a>, are expected to be operational\u00a0by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Data centre investment\u00a0is also ramping up. In 2019, China had\u00a0about 74,000 data centres<\/a>, 23% of the global total. The last three years have seen investment in data centre software and hardware increase by an average of 15%<\/a> a year \u2013 almost twice the global average rate of growth.<\/p>\n

One hundred major data centre projects, both those serving specific corporations and internet users more generally,\u00a0are in the planning pipeline this year, according to lists published by reform and development authorities at the provincial level. Consultants IDCquan estimate that China\u2019s internet data centre (IDC) market, including server hosting, content delivery network services and public cloud services, will be worth 320.1 billion yuan<\/a> ($45 billion) by 2022 \u2013 a 15-fold rise on 2012.<\/p>\n