lián hé guó联合国yán jiū研究:xiāng gǎng香港shù jù zhōng xīn数据中心de的tàn pái fàng碳排放hěn很gāo高
A new United Nations study says that Hong Kong’s data centers are among the places with the highest carbon emissions in the world, mainly because Hong Kong’s electricity generation relies heavily on fossil fuels.
The report examined the impact of data centers that support artificial intelligence on electricity, land, and water.
The report says that by 2030, data centers around the world could use a huge amount of electricity.
About 67% of Hong Kong’s energy comes from fossil fuels, 32% from nuclear power, and only 1% from renewable energy, so its carbon emissions are relatively high.
However, Hong Kong faces relatively little pressure in terms of water use and land use.
The report also says that everyday use of AI consumes more electricity than training models.
For example, generating images uses much more electricity than ordinary text prompts.
Even so, Hong Kong remains an important data center location.
The government is also building new data facilities and encouraging the industry to improve energy efficiency and reduce electricity use and environmental impact.