Data centres that require energy to run servers and provide cooling account for almost a quarter of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from information and communications technology (ICT), according to Gartner.

Not enough attention has been paid to reducing the data centre’s carbon emissions and it's the fastest growing area within the IT industry. With more and more websites going live every day, the rise in hosting needs is ever increasing. Organisations should aim to keep their data centre CO2 emissions constant but this is easier said than done. This all illustrates the need for green hosting, carbon free and carbon neutral services to help reduce your carbon emissions.

Data centres account for such a large portion of ICT CO2 emissions for a number of reasons. There is a lack of floor-space, a failure to house high-density servers and increased power consumption and heat generation. In addition, the cooling systems are adding to the problem.

Most organisations have grown their infrastructure (servers, storage and networks) considerably during the past three years. While the volume growth of these machines is set to rise annually for the next five years, a general lack of new data centre builds during the past nine years means that quality data-centre floor space is limited. The importance of more green data centres and green hosting is more and more crucial.

Lurking behind all the large internet companies lies huge and never ending data centres full of energy guzzling servers running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The energy used to power the servers themselves is one thing, the system needed to cool them is another Put the 2 together and you end up with one environmentally damaging monstrosity. The solution may lie with Iceland’s cool climate and cold water rush the could help reduce the energy levels needed for cooling. A green hosting centre for websites who want to go green and reduce their carbon footprint.

On a global scale, the Data Centre industry has a genuine need for a cleaner, greener energy solution that not only reduces carbon emissions but reduces cost. Iceland's new announcement of a green data centre to provide green hosting may hold the key. When you consider that distributing 10 megabytes of information uses the energy equivalent of burning 900 grams of coal, a green hosting solution and an environmental data centre is well overdue.

"The data centre industry now is on par with the airline industry as far as the carbon footprint,"

"But, if you think about the growth of those two industries, the growth of the data centre industry is exponentially greater than the airline industry.

"The two are going to cross and we think that - just like the legislation that was passed in the UK concerning carbon footprint and power utilisation - it is going to be a growing concern across the industry."

- Jeff Monroe, CEO of Verne Global

The first site for the green data centre is on the outskirts of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik. Verne Global is responsible for building this green data centre on a former NATO military base in southwest Iceland next to the Keflavik International Airport.

Energy costs are continuously fluctuating and going up more than down, and data centres consuming a large amount of energy there is a core need in the market for a green innovation solution that reduces energy and offers a green hosting solution.

Iceland’s natural environment and it’s volcanic forces have also gifted the country large amounts of geothermal power - 100% of the country's electricity is renewable and more or less carbon free, much of that green energy comes from water heated below ground.

The advantage of a company moving its data centre to Iceland would be a green hosting and environmentally cleaner solution to data centres and a heavily reduced carbon emissions. The end result is a cooler climate producing an endless supply of green energy. Green Carbon Free hosting for websites, green carbon free servers supplying cleaner energy and a natural resource cooling system. The future of green data centres looks to be Iceland.

The biggest polluter of greenhouse gas has, for the first time, put a figure on the amount of CO2 emissions it plans to cut by 2020. The superpower, which emits a staggering 6billion tonnes of CO2 per year has made a solid commitment to reduce the climate change gas. The announcement comes a day after the US committed to a cut and could signal more positive results from other countries. With Barak Obama attending the Copenhagen Conference and now China showing it's intentions, their be light at the end of the tunnel after all. Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao said: 'This is a voluntary action taken by the Chinese government based on its own national conditions and is a major contribution to the global effort in tackling climate change.'

Skeptics have said that China's economic growth and predicted emissions will in fact produce more greenhouse gas than it currently does. The optimistic Department of Energy believes this is a positive declaration and has said: 'China's first ever commitment to put a number on the table to reduce the carbon intensity is an important opening contribution ahead of Copenhagen and we are studying it in great detail.' We live in hope that this is a serious step towards a global signing on a green agreement.

To date the three big figures are:

Britain committing to reduce CO2 emissions by 586 million tonnes (34% of 1990 levels) by 2020.

USA committing to cut CO2 emissions 5,903 million tonnes (17% of 1990 levels) by 2020

China committing to cut CO2 emissions by 40-45% (based on 2005 levels) by 2020.

Within a corporate environment, the IT department is one of the big offenders. To battle this, the IT industry will be brought up in the forthcoming draft climate treaty at next month's UN summit in Copenhagen, thanks to a successful lobbying campaign from the international body The International Telecommunications Union, regulators of the IT and telecommunications industry.

The main goal being to reduce Carbon emissions with the IT sector and to involve the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) offsetting scheme.

Ways to reduce carbon emissions with the IT sector include general green practices such as eliminating your screen saver and switching off your computer to having your website hosted using carbon free web hosting or carbon neutral web hosting and using energy saving power sources.

Hollywood is now swarming with A-listers in green cars, eating at vegan restaurants and recycling anything that moves but what effect is this green bandwagon having on the mere mortals of our world?

Climate Change has suddenly become the thing to talk about and stars are looking at every green angle to further their credentials. And when Vanity Fair devotes an entire issue on the green machine, well, Hollywood has truly turned green!

The may issue of Vanity Fair focuses on a "green revolution" that is sweeping across the US and fronting this attack on pollution are a gang of actors, rock stars and business Moguls alike. And heading the list is an unlikely name.

Search for a green star and the one name that continuously pops up is Leonardo DiCaprio. The face of innocence and the perfect poster boy to lead the green revolt. Not far behind are Leo's green supporters in the form of Robert Redford, Cameron Diaz, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jack Johnson and Alanis Morissette. A formidable green team with serious clout on a global front but what are they doing practically and are their endeavours having a positive effect on their fans and the grand scheme of things.

In DiCaprio's case he seems to be focusing on his strengths and narrating short environmental films Global Warning and Water Planet, presented on his eco-activist website, www.leonardodicaprio.org (since 2000); co producing and writing, as well as narrating the documentary 11th Hour a film about the human impact on our planet. A far cry from the man who was accused of polluting the earth more than some small countries mainly with his use of his 6 private jets.

With such a green push and a fantastic platform to expose the green issues and solutions, one would hope that our green celebs and 'green cool' have a positive effect on their multitude of followers. Starting in education from a young age and hopefully turning that into practice can only be a good thing for our environment. So long live the green celebrity and although not all will be as genuine as the next, the word is spreading that is never being cooler to be green.

The emissions trading scheme was announced by the Government in the Energy White Paper published in May 2007 and will be introduced next year. Harry Morrison, general manager of the Carbon Trust Standard, says that any organisation likely to be covered by the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) should act now to prepare for registration. “This means assessing your carbon emissions right across your corporate group, including any subsidiaries,” he says.

The establishment of Climate Change Agreements and the EU ETS has created an incentive for reductions within energy intensive industries. The scheme will increase carbon abatement in other, non-energy intensive sectors, delivering bottom-line financial benefits. The business and public sectors generate over one third of UK CO2 emissions. The CRC will include, among others, supermarket chains, hotel chains, office-based corporations, government departments and large local authorities.

The scheme aims to reduce carbon emissions in large non-energy intensive organisations by 1.2 million tonnes of carbon per year by 2020. The CRC will be a mandatory emissions trading scheme, targeting emissions currently not included in the EU ETS or Climate Change Agreements, from up to 5,000 large organisations.

The need to create an incentive for emissions reduction in this sector was first highlighted by the Carbon Trust in its publication: The UK Climate Change Programme: Potential evolution for business and the public sector. This examined a range of possible new measures, including this new emissions trading scheme.

In its current proposed format, the CRC will cover all organisations whose electricity consumption through half hourly meters is greater than 6,000MWh/yr – equivalent to an annual electricity bill of ~£500k. All energy other than transport fuels will be covered, such as electricity, gas, fuel and oil. During a planned introductory phase, due to start in April 2010, all allowances will be sold at a fixed price. Participants will also potentially be able to buy EU ETS allowances to comply with their emissions cap – this would be a buy-only link to effectively create a price ceiling for credits in the CRC.

According to Grist, the online environmental news service, the United Station’s carbon emissions are in decline.

During the two years since 2007, carbon emissions from the US have dropped 9 percent. In 2008, oil use dropped 5 percent, coal 1 percent, and carbon emissions by 3 percent. Estimates for 2009, based on U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) data for the first nine months, show oil use down by another 5 percent. Coal is set to fall by 10 percent. Carbon emissions from burning all fossil fuels dropped 9 percent over the two years.

Part of this drop is due to the recession, but part of it is also from efficiency gains and from replacing coal with natural gas, wind, solar, and geothermal energy.

The U.S. has ended a century of rising carbon emissions and has now entered a new energy era, one of declining emissions. The federal government, which is the largest U.S. energy consumer, with some 500,000 buildings and 600,000 vehicles—announced in early October 2009 that it is setting its own carbon-cutting goals. These include reducing vehicle fleet fuel use, recycling at least 50 percent of waste by 2015, and buying environmentally responsible products.

Electricity use is falling because efficiency is improving. The potential for further cuts is evident in the wide variation in energy efficiency among states. If the 40 least-efficient states were to reach the electrical efficiency of the 10 most-efficient ones, national electricity use would be reduced by one-third. This would allow the equivalent of 62 percent of

Millions of climate-conscious citizens are also altering their lifestyles to reduce energy use. Efforts to reduce fossil fuel use are under way at every level of government and in businesses, utilities, and educational centres. Thirty-four states have adopted renewable standards to produce a larger share of electricity from renewable sources over the next ten years. Among the more populous states, the renewable standard is 24 per cent in New York, 25 per cent in Illinois, and 33 per cent in California.

22 coal-fired power plants in 12 states are being replaced by wind farms, natural gas plants, wood chip plants, or efficiency gains. Many more are likely to close as public pressure to clean up the air and to cut carbon emissions intensifies. Wind farms are also increasing in number. In 2008, a total of 102 wind farms appeared, providing more than 8,400 megawatts of capacity. Forty-nine wind farms were completed in the first half of 2009 and 57 more are under construction. 300,000 megawatts of wind projects (the equivalent 300 coal plants) are awaiting access.

U.S. solar cell installations are increasing at the rate of 40 percent a year. The rapid raise in rooftop installations on homes, shopping malls, and factories should continue. Furthermore, 15 large solar thermal power plants that use mirrors to concentrate sunlight and generate electricity are planned in California, Arizona, and Nevada, some of them powering web hosting. A new heat-storage technology that enables the plants to continue generating power for up to six hours past sundown has helped in this regard. There are also 132 geothermal power units in existence.