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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
The Impact of Computational Power on
Environmental Sustainability – A Comparative
Study Involving Two Categories
of National-Level Computing Infrastructure
1
School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
Submission date: 2023-10-18
Final revision date: 2024-03-27
Acceptance date: 2024-06-12
Online publication date: 2024-09-23
Publication date: 2025-05-09
Corresponding author
Wang Gaofeng
School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2025;34(4):4125-4141
KEYWORDS
carbon emissioncomputational infrastructuregreen innovationNational Supercomputing CenterNational Big Data Center
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Given the pivotal role of data and computational prowess in driving innovative competitiveness
during the digital epoch, this study expands the scrutiny of environmental impacts stemming from
digital technology. It investigates two distinct strata of national-level computing infrastructure (CI)—
namely, the National Supercomputing Centers (NSCs) and the National Big Data Centers (NBDCs)—
focusing on their influence on urban carbon emissions. Employing the synthetic control method,
the research unveils that despite the heightened energy consumption at both the NSCs and the NBDCs
(scale effect), these computational infrastructures exhibit disparate effects on urban carbon emissions.
This incongruity is principally explicated as follows: the establishment of NSCs amplifies regional
carbon emissions, while the carbon augmentation effects of the NBDCs are negligible. Furthermore,
through examinations of technological effects and compositional effects, it is ascertained that the CI
has not significantly improved the structure of local economic sectors, and its triggering effect on green
innovation is only evident in NSCs. These discerning findings elucidate that high energy consumption
is a major driver of carbon-intensive outcomes in supercomputing and data centers. Nonetheless, it
is imperative to underscore that under favorable conditions, computing infrastructure still possesses
the potential to significantly alleviate the adverse environmental “side effects”.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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