Do you have to say goodbye to your 50 GB package that allows you to look at Netflix on the train? An article on the Fandroid site, published on Monday, indicates that a “bill could emerge” to end these packages. The reason: “overconsumption of mobile data weighs heavily on our carbon footprint”, according to ADEME, the agency of the ecological transition.
The article indicates that it is this same agency which “is currently working on a bill aimed at establishing progressive pricing of mobile data”. The tweet accompanying the information has been seen more than 2 million times, was shared by Xavier Niel, the boss of Free (who simply commented “no”), and gave rise to a coverage in the media.
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Except that we are far from the bill, or an entry into force in 2026 as can write for example digital. The subject was well raised by an advice from ADEME, published in early January. In this one, the agency evokes tracks to make digital technology “an essential transversal lever to implement the ecological transition”. Inside, it is a question of evaluating “the relevance of the implementation of a progressive pricing on the plans” to master the growth of digital uses. But the document also recommends “to increase the duration of use of equipment by repairing them, by buying repackaged products, or by favoring sharing”, for example.
The consumption of mobile data as such does not represent a very large share of polluting emissions. According to a joint study by ADEME and ARCEP, digital represents 4.4 % of France’s carbon footprint in 2024. And among the different uses, networks constitute only … 4 % of this 4 %. Far behind the manufacture of different devices (50 %) and data centers (46 %). “It does not mean that nothing should be done,” nuance Roland Marion, Circular Economy Director at Ademe. Especially since, according to the agency, the average consumption of French is “only” 17 GB per month.
“It is not the role of ADEME to make bills”
But Roland Marion rather emphasizes two points. Already, “it is not at all in the role of ADEME to do draft laws”. The agency is mainly responsible for “producing knowledge” and communicating on these studies with the general public, and lets policies seize the subject if they deem it necessary. In addition, other gestures may have an effect. “By making your equipment last four years instead of three, for example, the impact on the” manufacture of new aircraft “is reduced by 30 %, illustrates Roland Marion.
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The carbon footprint linked to data centers and online activities represents an important part of the pollution generated by digital. The use of video remains difficult to assess: watching a streaming film consumes a lot of data, but represents a positive transfer by avoiding the purchase and manufacture of a Blu-ray player for example. The use of artificial intelligence explodes consumption. If Ademe still seeks to encrypt this aspect precisely, the NGO Data for Good, in 2023 advanced that fifteen days of Chatgpt training consumed the electricity equivalent of 270 French households for a year. “If the answer that we may be looking for by a simple Google research, we must recommend this at AI,” recommends Roland Marion. As for the gigas of your mobile package, it will always remain to open the application of 20 Minutes.