China promotes “green computing” to promote global digital development

As China pledges to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, China is striving to build green and low-carbon data centers with higher computing efficiency and lower power consumption energetic.

At the first China Green Computing Power Conference on Sunday, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology released a research report on the development of green computing.

The report defines green computing, also called sustainable computing, as the green and low-carbon pursuit of computing power, which is an important goal for its high-quality development.

Established an efficient, low-carbon, smart and intensive development framework for green computing power, analyzing the development trend of the key factors involving its effectiveness, thus to judge the overall prospects of its development in China.

Green computing power aims to maximize energy efficiency and minimize environmental impact in how computer chips, systems and software are designed and used, the report said, adding that developing green computing power Global green computing has entered the initial stage and such development in China is in good shape now.

The conference was held in Hohhot City, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region from July 1 to 3, aiming to create a platform to showcase the achievements of green computing power and add momentum to the leading role of Hohhot in China’s strategic project that will channel information resources from east to west.

Green computing for clean energy

Xu Zhifa, director of the industrial planning institute at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, told China Media Group (CMG) that the widespread application of green computing power in 2022 has led to a reduction in electricity consumption by the whole society of nearly 19.5 billion kWh, equivalent to the reduction of carbon emissions of more than 16 million tons, equivalent to about half of the annual electricity consumption in the city of Hohhot.

Zhang Jifei, deputy mayor of Hohhot, pointed out the city’s outstanding advantages for developing green computing power.

With abundant renewable energy resources, including 57% of the nation’s wind power and over 21% of solar power, combined with a favorable climate, Hohhot is an ideal location for building energy-efficient big data centers.

Wang Zhiqin, vice president of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, pointed out that computing power will serve as the driving force for digital development in various industries.

Wang also stressed that China’s dual carbon targets and sustainable development strategy will fuel the long-term growth of green and low-carbon computing power industry, facilitating a comprehensive digital transformation across all sectors.

China’s mega data project

Currently, China ranks second in the world in terms of the scale of its computing power, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

As of the end of 2022, the country’s total computing power scale has reached 180EFlops, with an annual growth rate of nearly 30%, and the total storage capacity scale has exceeded one trillion gigabytes.

The industry scale of basic computing power has reached 1.8 trillion yuan (about $260 billion). The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology has estimated that every yuan invested in computing power will result in an increase of 3-4 yuan to China’s GDP.

Along with the growth of the big data industry, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology presented a plan for the industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025).

It predicts that China’s big data industry will exceed 3 trillion yuan ($474 billion) by the end of 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of about 25%.

In 2022, China approved a mega project to build eight national computing hubs and plans to build 10 national data center clusters, an indication of its strategy to funnel more computing resources from the country’s eastern regions to less developed but affluent western regions of resources.

The project implementation is conducive to promoting green development and green energy utilization in western regions and continuously optimizing the energy efficiency of data centers, said the National Development and Reform Commission.

Global green development challenge

The world is changing rapidly and humans are working hard to revitalize a slow-moving economy and promote a low-carbon, green transformation.

Evolving consumer demand, climate change, disruptive technologies, and uncertainty about global economic recovery are all issues facing people.

Among them, climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our times, and humans need to take urgent action to reduce carbon emissions and make the transition to sustainable growth, according to Tao Kuangchun, president of KPMG Asia Pacific and China.

In the coming years, digital and green transformation will be the key trends, bringing challenges and opportunities. The two transformations are badly needed, closely related, and contribute to each other’s success, Tao added.

As a large economy willing to shoulder corresponding responsibilities, China has set an ambitious goal of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

Achieving these goals will not be easy and requires collective action, as all are stakeholders in tackling global climate change and it is imperative for various parties to strengthen cooperation and make innovation an important driver of global digital development, said l ‘expert.