How the Tech Sector in Australia can Lead the Nation Towards Net Zero
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As the world turns its attention to achieving its respective ambitious decarbonization goals, Australia awaits clear guidance as to its plans to achieve net zero.
Yet with nothing set in stone, its incumbent on businesses in Australia to instead take the lead and not wait for policy to dictate their roadmaps.
Businesses within the ICT sector in Australia are at the forefront of those which should be primed to take a lead on the issue, particularly as it’s both a fast-growing sector in Australia and a significant contributor to the nation’s emissions.
One in five of the top 500 fastest-growing tech companies in the Asia-Pacific region are Australian, according to one report: not bad for a country with just a small fraction of the region’s population. In addition, it’s estimated that the technology sector alone contributed about AU$167 billion to the Australian economy in the 2021 fiscal year, with the Tech Council of Australia claiming that contribution could increase by AU$77 billion over the next decade.
As the sector continues to grow, so too does its carbon footprint – our data forecast that the APAC region will be the fastest growing region of data centers over the next five years, representing an additional 800 megawatts (MW) of power consumption by this year alone. Of that, Sydney is expected to have the fourth-largest critical load in the region with over 300MW by this year.
Meanwhile, the Australian Energy Council forecast that data centers could grow to consume a fifth of all the world’s energy by 2025.