Estimating cross-border cloud computing emissions: A consumption-based approach applied to major European data center hubs
Ian V. Soares, Anna Furberg, Shoaib Azizi, Göran Finnveden, Masaru Yarime, Magdalena M. Klemun · 2026
Read Estimating cross-border cloud computing emissions: A consumption-based approach applied to major European data center hubs by Ian V. Soares, Anna Furberg, Shoaib Azizi, Göran Finnveden, Masaru Yarime, Magdalena M. Klemun (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13224008.txt.
Description
Ian V. Soares and co-authors develop a 2026 accounting method that assigns cloud computing emissions to the country where services are used, not only where data centres sit. Standard practice charges emissions to the host country, which hides cross-border demand. The team applied their approach to Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands over the years 2017 to 2022.
Cloud activity was split into domestic use, exports, and imports using electricity and emissions data for data centres and networks. Germany's footprint was mostly domestic, at about three quarters of its total. Ireland looked very different, with most of its hosted computing serving foreign users. Such figures can sit beside territorial inventories when governments plan climate and infrastructure policy.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Ian V. Soares, Anna Furberg, Shoaib Azizi, Göran Finnveden, Masaru Yarime, Magdalena M. Klemun |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 75 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |