Samsung investing $5b in efforts to be carbon neutral by 2050
- Reference: 1663247670
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/09/15/samsung_invests_in_carbon_neutral/
- Source link:
The Korean manufacturer aims to develop tech designed to filter out greenhouse gases and capture carbon dioxide generated during chip production. It also says it will make its devices business carbon neutral by 2030.
Kim Soo-jin, Samsung's head of ESG strategy group said: "These activities are to eventually meet demand from our customers ... so that we raise interest in our products. There are costs, but we will try to forge a business opportunity."
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Samsung said it also planned to increase the recycling of lithium and plastic used in its products.
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Chipmaking is a big problem for the tech industry when it comes to converting to more sustainable processes and energy sources.
A 2020 paper by researchers at Harvard University, Arizona State University and Facebook predicted the ICT industry as a whole would make up 20 percent of global energy demand by 2030. But hardware manufacturing contributes far more than operations, software and hosting.
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"Chip manufacturing, as opposed to hardware use and energy consumption, accounts for most of the carbon output," the report said. For example, nearly 30 percent of emissions from manufacturing 12-inch wafers are due to PFCs, chemicals, and gases, [5]the paper [PDF] found.
Kim appeared to acknowledge the problems when he said: "We are a company that manufactures directly... so there are various, layered challenges."
While many will welcome one of the world's largest chip and electronics manufacturer's commitment to the climate challenge, others may see it as closing the net zero doors after the global heating horse has bolted.
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By 2050, when Samsung's commitment finally kicks in, climate scientists have found the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions since the beginning of the industrial revolution could have a crippling effect on the world's climate.
In California, $17.9 billion worth of residential and commercial buildings could be [7]inundated by seawater by 2050 , with a projected 50cm of sea level rise. Meanwhile the [8]number of dangerous heat days a year will increase from 35 to 50 and the severity of widespread summer drought is projected to almost triple in the state .
[9]NIST and uni friends to design open source research chips, Google to bankroll the fabs
[10]Taiwan's GlobalWafers races to break ground in Texas before tax breaks dissolve
[11]Pull jet fuel from thin air? We can do that, say scientists
[12]Amazon's carbon footprint spread 18% in 2021
Other chipmakers have shown different emission goal commitments. Earlier this year, [13]Intel pledged to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its global operations by 2040. AMD, however, [14]committed to a 50 percent reduction in absolute GHG emissions from operations by 2030, from a 2020 base year.
Elsewhere, Samsung's parent Group shows a different perspective on its climate commitments. [15]It is one of the parties behind a $11 billion airport project in the Philippines, with no practical alternative for fossil fuel flights yet on the horizon. ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YyNMIGe5kEkuz8Hsq1@koQAAAAs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[5] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2011.02839.pdf
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YyNMIGe5kEkuz8Hsq1@koQAAAAs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://climateassessment.ca.gov/state/overview
[8] https://statesatrisk.org/california/all
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/14/nist_google_chips_open_source/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/13/taiwans_globalwafers_races_to_break/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/04/solar_hydrocarbon_production/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/03/amazon_carbon_report/
[13] https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/net-zero-greenhouse-gas-emissions-operations.html#gs.bwrj6z
[14] https://www.amd.com/en/corporate-responsibility/environmental-sustainability
[15] https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Transportation/Samsung-backed-group-wins-11bn-Philippine-airport-deal
[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
>"Chip manufacturing, as opposed to hardware use and energy consumption, accounts for most of the carbon output," the report said.
Really? Just for Samsung chips or in general?
The majority of chips by volume are memory flash/dram. The process to make them is going to have to be very energy intensive to cancel out a server running for a decade. You can just think of the energy bill, if a chip costs $1 retail it can't have more $0.1 of energy in its manufacture and you can bet the computer containing the chips is going to use more than "number of chips * $0.1" energy during it's life
> For example, nearly 30 percent of emissions from manufacturing 12-inch wafers are due to PFCs, chemicals, and gases"
That statement doesn't link to the previous one. It's entirely possible that 30% emissions is due to processing chemical steps. But that could still be 1% of the energy to truck the chips to the store or 0.001% of the energy the computer will use during its life
The whole point of combating climate change is not combating climate change. These companies are just looking for extra profit now and being green sells stuff. A company saying they are going to invest 5bn is very different to a company actually investing 5bn. I'm going to invest 1tr in solving climate change. You have no way to verify it so you'll just have to take my word for it. My plan if you must ask is to use robots to clean solar panels and put motors on wind generators for when there is no wind. I also plan to pump water from the bottom to the top of hydroelectric dams hence increasing the energy output of green power.
Time to re-evaluate
> In California, $17.9 billion worth of residential and commercial buildings could be inundated by seawater by 2050,
Although I doubt they would be worth $17.9bn once that happens.
However, given the [1]very high prices of beachfront homes in CA , that would be far fewer properties than you might think.
[1] https://www.rubyhome.com/california/beach-front-homes/