A new law to reduce the environmental footprint of digital technology in France

From 2% currently, the impact of digital technology could increase to 7% of emissions of greenhouse gases in France in 2040, i.e. 24 million tonnes equivalent carbon. These figures, taken from report of the information mission on the digital environmental footprint, put in light the urgency of establishing a real transversal public strategy so that the environmental gains induced by the ecological transition are not in vain.

Hence the interest of the promulgation on November 15, 2021 of the law aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of digital technology in France which, if it is criticized by some for not going far enough in its intentions, lay some fundamental foundations.

Digital sobriety in school curricula

First flagship measure: education. As argued by many voices, like that of Florent Ducos, from 50 Partners Impact, or even Maxime Loubar, from Wyes, awareness of digital sobriety must be learned from an early age. The first three articles of the text therefore modify the Education Code to include an awareness of the environmental issues of the tools digital and digital sobriety.

This concerns primary and secondary students, for whom digital training already exists, but also students of engineering courses, which will follow from the start of the 2022 school year ” a module relating to the ecodesign of digital services and digital sobriety “. It remains to define its content, as the field of ecodesign is wide to reduce the quantity of IT resources, green code at the end of bloatware, those software preinstalled which take up unnecessary space.

The fight against planned obsolescence

Smartphones, tablets, computers… Digital terminals represent no less than 70% ofcarbon footprint digital technology in France. The challenge is therefore to be able to lengthen the duration of life through several provisions:

• The fight against software obsolescence, therefore for example prohibiting manufacturers from making it impossible to restore all the functionalities of a repaired or reconditioned terminal, or even the obligation to inform consumers about updates. necessary to maintain the conformity of its digital device, but also on their characteristics, in particular on the storage space they require.
• The fight against planned obsolescence to increase the replacement rate, taking into account the repairability index from January 2023 and the durability from January 2026 in public orders for digital products, or the introduction of a specific and differentiated private copying royalty rate (DRC) when purchasing a smartphone or tablet compared to new devices .
• More anecdotal but symbolic, end of the obligation to provide listeners when buying a smartphone!

The involvement of the greatest number

In addition to these two fundamental subjects, this law covers several fields such as:

• the obligation for municipalities and their intercommunalities of more than 50,000 inhabitants to develop a responsible digital strategy from 2025;
• the establishment of a general ecodesign framework for digital services which sets criteria for the sustainable design of websites from 2024;
• the appearance of a new observatory of the environmental impacts of digital technology alongside the Environment Agency and the control ofenergy (Ademe) and the regulatory authority for electronic communications, postal services and press distribution (Arcep);
• electronic communications operators will have to publish key indicators of their commitments in favor of ecological transition without, unfortunately, any mention of control or sanction.