Yes Mr IT manager sitting next to your whirring servers, this means you pal.

The Global Action plan just told us the following, as they prepare to talk with MPs and journalists this afternoon at Westminster.

Trewin Restorick (pictured), director of Global Action Plan and chair of the Environmental IT Leadership Team, says:

“The shock statistic is that ICT is responsible for two per cent of man-made carbon emissions. The sector is growing at a faster rate than aviation. It will be a larger carbon emittor.

IT has always been perceived as a clean technology, but a server pumps out the same amount of carbon as a Chelsea tractor.

We are also running out of space for server farms.

We don’t want to go into scare stories about the lights going off but we are talking about switching off coal-powered stations in 15 years with no real alternative.”

The idea that computers can create a paperless offices is also poppycock, he said.

In 1980, 70m tonnes of paper was used in offices. In 1997, that was 150m tonnes. But the stats didn’t show more recent findings.