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The "Burn-to-Earn" Index

The Global Digital Economy's Economic and Environmental Impact and Tradeoffs

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The Index

The global digital economy is reshaping growth by driving innovation, expanding connectivity, and transforming business. However, its expansion has environmental consequences—most notably in the form of rising energy consumption, CO2e emissions, and electronic waste. This study seeks to answer several questions:

  • What is the impact of the economic growth associated with the digital economy and its environmental footprint and what are the tradeoffs?
  • Which countries are better at managing this tradeoff – and why?
  • Does a country’s advanced digitalization lead to increased digital economic gains and reduced emissions?
  • What actions can governments and businesses take to manage the tradeoff and build greater trust in the coming generations of digital innovations?

Key insights on the environmental impact and tradeoffs of the digital economy

  • Digital economies are growing 3X faster than overall GDP, making digitalization a key lever for stimulating economic growth and revenues
  • Digital platforms made the greatest aggregate contribution to the digital economy globally, with e-commerce as the prime value creator
  • Digital platforms were the largest contributor in 25 economies—including the U.S. and China—but value-added services contributed the most to the largest number of economies: 77 of them
  • Fintech is the fastest growing sector, followed by e-services, with hardware and enabling infrastructure experiencing a decline
  • Value of the digital economy per internet user (essentially “per capita digital GDP”) is correlated with an economy’s state of digital evolution
  • Richer economies not only generate more value per internet user than lower-income economies, they are also widening the gap over time
  • Countries vary widely in their ability to manage emissions while growing their digital economies. The Burn-to-Earn Index offers a powerful way to assess this, enabling governments and companies to benchmark performance, set targets, and strategically adapt their digital and energy infrastructures

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* Taiwan is the economic region also commonly referred to as Chinese Taipei by the World Trade Organization. We use both terms Taiwan, and Chinese Taipei interchangeably in this research. Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China. China in this research represents the economic region of Mainland China. This is to accurately reflect the underlying data and indicators that inform our study.

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