Arcep has been collecting data from digital industry stakeholders since 2020, to be able to monitor the evolution of their environmental footprint, and has been steadily expanding its data collection to include new actors. The thus obtained information is published in the annual “Achieving digital sustainability” survey. The fifth edition of this survey, published in May 2026, was expanded to include a new category of industry stakeholder: fixed network equipment suppliers that manufacture fibre optic cables. Looking ahead to its 2027 data collection campaign, for the 2028 edition of its annual survey, Arcep is opening a public consultation on a new draft decision.
Arcep expands its environmental data collection to include generative artificial intelligence (AI) service providers, following through on its report on the environmental issues surrounding generative AI
Published in May 2026, the report on: “Generative AI: environmental issues and challenges” includes the recommendation to implement the collection and publication of environmental data, in order to better document the environmental impact of generative AI, which continues to be poorly understood due to a lack of reliable and comparable data.
The indicators that Arcep proposes to collect from generative AI service providers must create the ability to:
- assess the greenhouse gas emissions associated with these services,
- understand the main features of the models that underpin the most popular generative AI services in France,
- assess the resources mobilised during the training and inference phases, notably computing power, cumulative time of processor use and the associated energy consumption.
Arcep expands its data collection to include data centre operators, in particular to better assess the potential to reuse their excess heat
For data centre operators and cloud computing service providers that have their own data centres, the purpose of the new indicators is to:
- more accurately characterise the techniques employed to reuse excess heat by assessing the percentage of data centres that are technically capable of reusing this heat, and the percentage of centres that actually do so;
- assess the influence that the different cooling systems have on data centres’ environmental footprint;
- cover all of the information required on the European Commission platform, in accordance with Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364. Data centre operators’ procedures have been simplified since 2026, as Arcep transmits this information to the platform thanks to the data it collects from data centre operators.
Steady and coordinated enhancement of the annual “Achieving digital sustainability” survey: stakeholders are invited to share their views on the planned indicators
Arcep continues to fuel the collaborative process used to develop environmental data collection. Since early 2026, it has been engaged in a dialogue with generative AI service providers, to define relevant and methodologically sound indicators. The Authority also engaged with data centre operators to discuss the changes planned, and to obtain their initial feedback. These new indicators will supplement the data collected from electronic communications operators, mobile network equipment suppliers, fixed network equipment suppliers that manufacture fibre optic cables, device manufacturers, and cloud computing service providers (whose indicators will not change this year).
To obtain feedback and comments from the largest possible number of actors on the planned data collection, the public consultation will be open to every stakeholder, until 30 September 2026.
The responses to this public consultation will be examined with a view to the final data collection Decision, which is due before the end of 2026, and will be published on the Arcep website once approved by the Minister-Delegate responsible for artificial intelligence and digital affairs.
Annual “Achieving digital sustainability” survey, serving Arcep’s “Ambition 2030” strategy
This work is fully aligned with the objective of “improving and sharing knowledge of ICT’s environmental impacts,” listed in Arcep’s “Ambition 2030” strategy. The associated roadmap includes achieving a deeper understanding of the environmental impact of AI. The Decision being submitted today to public consultation thus proposes to expand data collection to include generative AI service providers, and to incorporate new indicators for some of the actors already being queried.
Environmental data collection: a responsibility entrusted to Arcep, and powers strengthened by Law
To be able to fully assess the environmental impact of information and communication technologies (ICT), back in 2020, among the 11 proposals contained in its “Achieving digital sustainability” report, Arcep proposed the creation of a Green Barometer. In 2021, the Government entrusted Arcep with this task of creating a barometer covering the entire digital ecosystem. The Law of December 2021 on Strengthening Arcep’s Environmental Regulation of the Digital Sector (the “REEN” Act) gave Arcep the power to collect environmental data, not only from electronic communications operators, but also from public online communication service providers, data centre operators, device manufacturers, network equipment suppliers and operating system providers. In 2024, the Law on Securing and Regulating Cyberspace (the “SREN” Act) expanded Arcep’s data collection powers to include cloud computing service providers.