SHANGHAI: China's internet firms have fallen behind global peers in sourcing energy from clean, renewable sources, with soaring use of internet data driving up energy demand and carbon emissions, environmental group Greenpeace said in a report on Thursday.
"Power consumption from China's internet industry is skyrocketing, and it's imperative that Chinese internet giants lead the sector to break away from its reliance on coal," said Ye Ruiqi, a Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner. Among companies heavily reliant on cloud computing, e-commerce giant Alibaba was ranked the best performer in Greenpeace's survey, which also looked at"government and industry influence" and data transparency, as well as emissions levels. Tencent was second, followed by Baidu and Huawei.
Huawei already has its own solar plants at some facilities and has pledged to minimise power demand throughout its supply chain, a company spokesman said, adding that it was now working on new long-term emissions targets.