Internal carbon pricing in ICT companies

Abstract

Climate change currently stands as the leading megatrend, accompanied by an intensifying discourse and growing concern regarding both the issue itself and the rising emissions causing it. Therefore, discussions about various potential approaches to mitigate the effects of climate change and ways to decrease the emitted emissions are also gaining momentum. Internal carbon pricing is one of the methods that has gained significant attention in recent years as a mechanism to internalize the costs of carbon emissions within organizations. While considerable research has been conducted on internal carbon pricing in many sectors, there is little literature on its application, specifically in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. The ICT sector produces a substantial amount of emissions, but the climate impact of the sector has only recently become widely recognized as something that needs to be adequately addressed. This research sheds more light on the reasons and ways the ICT sector could utilize internal carbon pricing to mitigate its climate impact.

This research was conducted as a qualitative case study. One quality case was used, and the findings were collected from whitepapers published by the case company. The findings from the case were analysed against the literature. The findings indicate that the motivations and implementation methods for the ICT sector align with those found in the literature.