Research from McMaster University in Canada shows that buying a new smartphone requires approximately the same amount of energy as using your old one for a decade. The research, published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, indicated a drastic increase in the carbon footprint of the Information and Communication (ICT) industry over the last decade, citing an increase from 1% of global carbon footprint in 2007 to roughly 3% in 2018, with projections of 14% by 2040. The researchers also noted that smartphones are particularly environmentally damaging owing to their short life-cycles coupled with over 85% their carbon footprint resulting from producing the device (i.e. mining, refinement and manufacturing).
