Archive · 11 Nov 2025
COP Websites Emit 10 Times More Carbon Than Average Webpage, Study Finds
Imagine every time you visit a website, it uses a little bit of energy, like a tiny light bulb turning on.
This makes pollution, called carbon emissions.
Scientists looked at websites for big climate meetings called COP.
They found that these COP websites use much more energy than regular websites, up to ten times more!
This is because they use lots of pictures and videos.
Over many years, the amount of pollution from these sites has grown a lot.
The scientists suggest making websites simpler and using power from the sun or wind to help the planet.
Websites for UN Conferences of the Parties (COP) emit up to 10 times more carbon than average internet pages.
An analysis of web archives by University of Edinburgh researchers revealed a significant increase in COP website carbon footprint.
Between 1995 and 2024, average emissions from COP websites have risen by over 13,000 percent.
Emissions started to rise sharply from COP15 (2009) onwards, largely due to increased use of content requiring higher computing power.
Recommendations to reduce digital footprints include limiting page sizes, optimizing layouts, and using renewable energy for hosting.
- Who
- Researchers from the University of Edinburgh
- What
- Found that websites for the UN Conference of the Parties (COP) emit significantly more carbon than average webpages.
- When
- Between 1995 and 2024, with findings published in the journal PLOS Climate.
- Where
- Analysis based on web archives.
- Why
- Content, including multimedia, requiring higher computing power has been increasingly used on COP websites since 2009.
- Study Focus
- Carbon emissions from UN Conference of the Parties (COP) websites
- Key Finding
- COP websites emit up to 10 times more carbon than average webpages
- Data Source
- Web archives including the 'Internet Archive'
- Time Period Analyzed
- 1995 to 2024
- Emission Increase (1995-2024)
- Over 13,000%
- Notable Increase Point
- COP15 onwards
- COP29 Homepage Emission
- 83,000%+ increase compared to COP3