Session

DescriptionGlobal challenges around climate change necessitate a move to a greener society. However, mathematical simulations on supercomputers and the recent rise in popularity of AI consumes vast amounts of energy with associated environmental impact. Indeed, there are estimates that computing could consume up to 20% of the world’s electricity by the end of the decade. This is not only bad for the environment, because energy is a significant contributing factor to the CO2 emissions of computing, but it also limits the size of a supercomputer because very few locations can deliver the necessary amount of energy. Moreover, recent studies predict that data centres may account for up to 8% of global Carbon emissions by 2030, however despite these alarming numbers, moving HPC towards net zero has not seen the same urgency as other sectors. Given the scale of the challenge, this requires a full stack approach, identifying and exploring opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint across the entire ecosystem. The purpose of this minisymposium is to highlight opportunities for improved sustainability in key areas of the HPC ecosystem, explore how we can address these as a community and how these areas can interoperate to deliver a step change in sustainability.