However, we know that it is the manufacturing and use of digital infrastructures that has the greatest impact on the environment, particularly because they are mainly concentrated, at 60%, in Asian countries with carbon-based energy mixes. Finally, the development of the metaverse would have a significant impact on our electricity consumption . Digital services in France represent approximately 10% of annual electricity consumption , while data centers are estimated to represent 4 to 22% of the impact on the environment. Also, the development of metaverses seems to be in particular contradiction with the good practices expressed by ARCEP and ADEME: reducing our consumption of online videos and using lower quality images.
These observations have also been noted by several video game studios – early exposed to the possibilities, challenges and risks of the metaverse. They have warned through a forum , on its impacts on linkedin data the environment, and have committed not to invest in the metaverse . The metaverse is, without compromise, very energy-intensive. However, in the face of environmental criticism, defenders of the metaverse are playing the substitution and progress card . The new interactive space that they are promoting could be a solution to reduce our environmental impact , by leaving our planet from time to time.
However, it would be necessary to quantify the cost of the metaverse, between the energy savings (for travel or immaterial purchases) and the energy cost (in data centers, mining or hardware). It is difficult to quantify the environmental cost of the metaverse, particularly because the information is not necessarily freely accessible, but also because it is difficult to quantify a technology under construction. However, given the weight of streaming, cloud gaming or electronics manufacturing, we know that the metaverse will have a colossal weight in our greenhouse gas emissions and our extraction of raw materials.
Faced with the challenge of innovation and environmental preservation, there are several schools of thought. Some see digital technology as an opportunity to reduce our carbon footprint . As the Rexecode Institute shows , the rise of digital technology can be favorable to growth and the reduction of France's carbon footprint. Digital technology would then be a tool to respond to climate challenges thanks to three levers. First, it would make it possible to substitute physical uses that emit carbon with less expensive digital uses.