Nothing threatens our planet and our humanity as much as climate change - this is scientifically well studied and proven. Some of the effects are already clearly visible today: weather extremes such as severe storms and droughts, melting polar ice caps and floods endanger the lives of many people and can lead to famine, epidemics and refugee movements.

With the Paris Climate Agreement of December 2015, almost 190 countries agreed on strategies to significantly reduce CO₂ emissions. In the long term, the aim is to limit the rise in average global temperature to well below 2°C compared with pre-industrial levels.

The majority of scientists and climate researchers agree that we ourselves are responsible for the fact that the earth continues to warm up. Since the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, mankind has increasingly contributed to feeding CO₂ and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. The result: the so-called greenhouse effect, which ensures that less and less sunlight is reflected back out from the earth. This causes the average temperature in the world to rise.

There are numerous ways in which alliances of states and governments are currently trying to halt or at least slow down climate change. For example, the European Union (EU) has decided to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990. This is to be achieved, among other things, through the expansion of sustainable energy sources, the strengthening of low-carbon transport and emissions trading that limits the emission of greenhouse gases from industry.

But some companies are also taking extensive measures to combat climate change. For example, some organizations already have rules in place to forego a business flight if in doubt, to produce more energy-efficiently, and to rely more on climate-friendly processes overall in their own supply chain.

And private individuals? They can do something too! Every time you take your bike and leave your car behind, prefer regional and seasonal products when shopping, and use energy-saving lighting, you make a small contribution to climate protection. And the more people do this and carry this attitude into the companies or organizations in which they work, the greater this positive effect will be.

The car trip to the supermarket, the weekend flight to the vacation island, the cruise in the Caribbean - in many areas there is now a much greater awareness that our personal actions leave a smaller or larger CO₂ footprint. Terms like "flight shame" remind us that we ourselves can influence what our impact on the climate looks like.

Less well known: Our digital lifestyle also causes greenhouse gas emissions - and not in short supply: Data stored today on servers and in clouds requires enormous amounts of energy. Facebook alone, for example, emits as much CO₂ as 30,000 citizens in the European Union combined. By 2025, the amount of data generated each year could rise to 175 zettabytes, contributing significantly to the increase in CO₂ emissions in the ICT* sector. By 2040, emissions from this sector could account for 14% of total global emissions.

Zu große Zahlen? Zu abstrakt? Dann machen wir es hier konkret: So ist etwa der globale CO₂-Fußabdruck des Internets vergleichbar mit dem des Flugverkehrs und mit einer Mrd. Tonnen verantwortlich für ca. 2 % der weltweiten jährlichen Emissionen. Doch es fängt bereits im Kleinen, bei jedem Einzelnen von uns an: Wenn Du ein Jahr lang 100 Handyfotos in deiner Cloud speicherst, produzierst Du genau so viel CO₂ wie mit 11,5 km Bahnfahren, während das Backup eines einstündigen Videos in der Cloud etwa so viel emittiert wie eine Fernbusreise zwischen 80-100 Kilometern.

*ICT = information - and communications technology
Sources: Information Service of the German Economy (2019); European Commission (2020); Federal Environment Agency (2018, 2020)

How can you get to grips with this problem without renouncing all digital technology? By first analyzing how much CO₂ your smartphone actually causes - and then trying to reduce this figure.

This is exactly where CO₂free comes in: The app determines the ecological footprint of cell phones and gives users the option of deleting superfluous data directly. This reduces the energy consumption of the device as well as that of the cloud services and data centers, thus reducing the burden on the environment. The remaining CO₂ emissions from additional data on the cell phone can be offset directly via CO₂free.

But even independent of CO₂free, users literally have it in their own hands to reduce the impact of their smartphone on the environment: for example, by avoiding unnecessary services, superfluous e-mails, and redundant search queries, and by using social media more consciously.