**Abstract**

Socio-economic sustainability has emerged the common song of the policy makers globally. It has been projected as a developmental strategy by international and regional agencies. There has been several campaigns and programs all of which are intended to promote sustainability. In developing countries, the masses have been bamboozled with often unrealistic bogus policies hypocritically crafted in a bid to deceive the uninformed who are undoubtedly helpless in the midst of the conundrum. However, the 2019 reports of the IPCC and OECD respectively on global warming, sustainability and climate change is not a phenomenon that should be swept under the carpet by any sensible government. Though in many jurisdictions, campaigns and policies have long assumed political undertone, it must be stressed that it is time for talking the walk. Governments must put up implementable strategies that are all encompassing across the various sociopolitical classes and the different industry levels. According to the said reports, global warming and climate change pose severe challenges to sustainability and this is attributed to social, and economic root causes. The social sources are conflicts and poor socio-political governance structures whereas the economic sources are connected to *industry, electricity, residential, agriculture, and transport. It is reported that 60% of greenhouse emissions globally emanate from the economic source.* The worst hit is the sub-Saharan Africa where the dumping of electronic wastes and uncontrolled deployment of unregulated hardware for industry operations have remained a major environmental menace in the last decade. Having regard to the foregoing, this paper seeks to provide a systematic inquiry into the green computing policies and legislations in a major economic hub in the sub-Saharan Africa. The essence of this investigation is to critically review the present status of existing policies, strategies, and legislation vis-à-vis their strengths, lapses, and the contributory effect of these on driving the sustainability programs in the general developmental outlook of the sub region.

**Keywords:** green computing, environmental computing, computer wastes, climate change, sustainability

#### **1. Introduction**

Green computing (GC) has remained an important aspect of vital discussions involving environmental protection, green energy, climate change and sustainable development, though several equivalent terms such as Green ICT (GICT), ICT sustainability, and perhaps in a broader terminology, 'environmental computing', one thing remains glaring that is, the common goal which, according to the global body on GICT, the International Federation of Global and Green Information Communication Technology (IFGICT), is to practice and achieve eco-friendly deployment and use of ICT in the society. Ordinarily, the green computing ideology is aimed at reducing the perilous component load during computing equipment manufacturing. It is also concerned with energy-efficient and eco-friendly computing as well as processes for marshaling out machineries that enhance the biodegradability of computer-based wastes [1]. Green computing cover the spectrum of large-scale computing environment such as data centres, and mobile systems [2, 3]. It has been noted that green computing is a major leap in mitigating environmental pollution, degradation, and the impacts of climate change [1]. Adopting the tenets of green computing does entail producing and using energy-efficient computing devices, developing cutting edge strategies and research towards reducing energy consumption, and the appropriate disposal of electronic waste arising therefrom. Abugabah and Abubaker proposed a 5-phase lifecycle strategy for green computing [4]. According to the said proposal, green computing encompasses green design, green production, green procurement, green operations, and green disposal. Whereas the proposition is apt, it must be noted that these technical phases are not naturally continuous as in a process cycle but could occur independently. Consequently, each phase may present unique concerns that are influenced and shaped by social and economic forces (e.g. policies, legislations, lifestyles, culture, etc.) hence must be factored in for an effective greener ICT ecosystem. With the ever-growing global population, the demands for computing and ICT devices may experience sustained increase and the consequence is enormous pressure on the manufacturers to either release new technologies or increase the volume of production of current brands [5]. There is no gainsaying that technology advancement has its downsides or side effects which include generation of e-wastes, pollution, health and environmental degradation. In this chapter, three key factors that promote these side effects have been identified. They are: Unregulated and indiscriminate deployment of heavy ICT infrastructure; rapid technology evolution; and socioeconomic inequities in developing countries.

#### **1.1 Unregulated deployment of energy-intensive ICT infrastructure**

The unregulated deployment of heavy ICT infrastructure such as data centres and base stations for telecommunications, is a major contributor to environmental pollution and other environmental imbalances. Nwankwo and Ukhurebor noted that data centres have become indispensable in driving socioeconomic activities globally in recent times [6]. Data centres are not only run by technology service providers (TSPs) such as telecommunications and ICT service provisioning companies but are commonplace in the industry sector (cement factories, steel production factories, consumer goods production industries, automobile factories, finance and banking organizations, etc.) of every economy. These energy-intensive infrastructure are localized in many industrial zones in developing and developed countries. It has been noted that across all economic sectors including the public sector, modernization programs are not complete without ICT infrastructure [7–12]. Research has shown that data centres contribute significantly to greenhouse emissions, pollutions and eventually climate change [13–20]. In the post-COVID era, there is likely to be a surge in the deployment of data centres, mobile stations, and other sophisticated computing equipment as the pandemic is engendering an era wherein at least 80% of all economic activities are to run online. This has been christened the 'new normal' across different jurisdictions. With this predicted surge, Governments must put up implementable strategies and machineries that are all encompassing across the various sociopolitical classes and the different industry levels.

#### **1.2 Rapid technology evolution and unfair competition**

Rapid technology evolution and unfair competition globally, is a serious contributory factor to the menace of electronic dumping especially in Africa and other developing jurisdictions [21]. Over the years, Africa has emerged the targeted destination for sales of computing hardware from Europe, Asia, and America regardless of the product specifications in relation to standard, safety, and ecofriendliness [21, 22]. Atkin described this anomaly as an environmental injustice occasioned on the developing nations by the developed countries (Europe, United States, Japan, Korea, Australia, China, etc.) who intentionally transport tons of e-waste to vulnerable countries though with adequate knowledge that these poor countries do not have the resources to dispose these wastes [23].

Interestingly, despite Africa's economic prowess and abundant human and natural resources that would have promoted manufacturing or local assembly of computing equipment within the continent, it appears the continent is sabotaged by those countries with supposedly superior technical and technological endowments. This inequity suffered on a large scale by the continent across the global economic sphere, is one of the factors that occasioned the continued inflow of substandard and electronic wastes into the continent amid regional and national campaigns against electronic dumping.

As noted by [24] electronic dumping has remained one of the most worrisome environmental issue throughout the African continent. According to their study, second-hand and discarded electronic products from Europe, Asia and America is very predominant and has continued to create an uneasy atmosphere for the disposal machineries and strategies put in place by the various national governments. According to them the computer components that are popularly shipped to Africa are categorized into three: those that have reached end of life but bought by some Africans and other nationals that trade in second-grade goods; products phased out from mainstream distribution and support, by their manufacturers; and used products already discarded by their owners in foreign countries.

Several researchers have linked electronic dumping to advancement in technology and the increasing output in the production of computing and electronic devices in western countries and Asia [25, 26]. As more industries across different jurisdictions churn out new devices, the existing ones though had not reached their end-of-life may be discarded regardless of their utility values owing to the release and promotion of newly launched sophisticated models. A typical example is mobile phones and personal computers (PCs). These two devices are emerging part of everyday life in the socioeconomic ecosystem as technology rapidly becomes the vehicle for social and economic activities. The existing traditional and/or simple devices are being reengineered using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things. Notice that these two pervasive technologies are rapidly evolving into full-fledged consumer-oriented technologies. The quest for intelligence in devices is exerting a tremendous effect on the development of new devices that would in no time replace the existing ones. In other words, the major concern would no longer be the end of life of the equipment per se but the utility value. Thus, where the utility of the device is found relatively lower vis-à-vis that of the emerging device, then it would be discarded in favor of the more sophisticated device thereby adding to the global e-waste burden. Currently, it has been observed that semiconductor devices and sensors are being added to products that were never before contemplated to have such components in them. For instance, the desire for wearable monitors, smart city, smart homes, smart agriculture, intelligent TV, etc. with embedded capabilities to exchange information with other devices, though laudable, also contributes immensely to the problem of electronic wastes.

It has also been observed that the newly produced devices often exhibit shorter life spans owing to the use of non-removable batteries. Typical examples are smart phones, tablets, consumer health monitoring devices, etc. A decade ago, almost every smart phone or tablet has a battery which could be easily replaced at will by the owner of the device once the battery's performance falls below a certain range. The trend is different nowadays. Currently, these devices come with non-removable batteries. The implication is that once the batteries malfunction or get exhausted, the devices themselves would be considered useless and would ultimately be discarded and new ones acquired.

#### **1.3 Socioeconomic inequities in developing countries**

The quest for survival is the major promoter of the growing informal recycling business in developing countries. It is reported that the supposed boom in informal and unregulated recycling of failed and discarded computing equipment is associated with the ongoing massive shipping and dumping of these systems in developing countries. According to [22] these computer wastes are intentionally shipped to developing countries especially in Africa with the aim of selling them to users who may put them to use or recycling to recover some valuable elements (gold, copper, etc.) which may be sold thereafter to meet economic demands [27]. It is reported that these businesses thrive in countries such as China, Nigeria, Ghana, India, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, etc. [28–31]. The downside of such businesses is the adoption of traditional methods of recycling that often release toxic and hazardous substances into the environment [32, 33]. Again, the massive production of these devices is connected to the rate at which they become obsolete. It is reported that in 2016 alone, about 49 million tons of electronic wastes were generated and the said report predicts an increase to 57 million metric tons of e-wastes in 2021 [34]. Another report states that the global e-waste burden stood at 5.8 kg per person in 2014 which rose to 6.3 kg per individual globally in 2017 [35]. According to the global e-waste monitor, 53.6 million tons of e-waste was generated globally in 2019 [36]. This report agrees perfectly with the projection made by Cho in 2018 [34]. On average, 40 million tons of electronic waste are generated globally every year [37]. According to a report, the United States alone disposes over 47.5 million computer systems and hundred (100) million cell phones among other electronic wastes each year [23]. It is estimated that proper disposal of a ton of e-waste would cost 2500 USD in a developed country [23]. Developing countries rarely have these resources for e-waste disposal. Despite this, these countries allow imports of e-wastes at 3 USD per tonne.

These findings call for urgent measures especially as human existence is increasingly confronted with more health challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

The trend in e-waste generation has emerged a serious health and sustainability issue globally [37, 38]. For over two decades, there has been a continuous engagements of several global and regional organizations including the various agencies of the United Nations, African Union, European Union, national agencies for environmental protection, and non-governmental agencies. These efforts have been directed towards developing strategic interventions that would enable humanity deal with the peculiar and lasting challenges occasioned by e-waste. Some of the notable engagements include:


Amid the calls from different quarters in respect of climate change and environmental protection especially as it affects e-waste management it appears the ongoing programs and initiatives have adopted a collective approach in the sense that electronic wastes is a term that is all encompassing. Accordingly, some distinctions are important as not all electronic wastes emanate from computing devices and not only computer devices contribute to pollution and environmental degradation. It therefore follows that a particularized approach which would x-ray all the vital areas of computing deployments and applications taking into consideration the entire computing device forms and lifecycle (production, acquisition, deployment, use, withdrawal, and destruction/recycling) and their contributions to sustainability domains such as environmental protection, safety, and health. The destruction/ recycling phase is a critical point in the lifecycle of electronic products generally. It is also the most demanding phase. Direct destruction through burning and deposition into landfills create sustainability problems. The by-products of burning are pollutants and usually toxic to humans and in some cases plants. Though recycling e-waste is promising, however, with the present poor recycling facilities across Africa, weak policies and regulations, and lack of recycling programs [38], the continent is in dire need of green ICT reforms. The aim of this chapter is to showcase the relevance of green computing on fostering sustainability through the design and entrenchment of mechanisms and approaches including policies and legislations that would forestall the impending danger that might be occasioned on humanity by the continuous accumulation of computer-based wastes, and the deployment of energy-intensive computing facilities.
