Sceptics may argue that a single person can only have a limited impact, but the eco-conscious have various apps at their disposal to monitor their personal carbon footprints. 

Various apps estimate the emissions produced by a car or plane ride, while others allow shoppers to scan items and see information on how eco-friendly they are.  Google last week announced tweaks to its search tools to show drivers the most fuel-efficient routes and display emissions information for flights. The search engine Ecosia, meanwhile, uses the profits from its ads to pay for reforestation, with more than 135 million trees planted so far.

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Has the shift towards remote work during the pandemic been good for the environment? It's still unclear, say, researchers. 

Last year the huge drop in commuting was hailed as a contributor towards a drop in global emissions, as much of the world hunkered down. But signing in online still means employees use energy at home -- and in the winter, heating individual dwellings can be less efficient than a single office for a whole team.

The International Energy Agency found that if all white-collar workers stayed home one day a week, global emissions could be cut by 24 million tonnes -- roughly equivalent to London's emissions in a year.

Workers with long car commutes could certainly cut their carbon footprints by staying home, the IEA said. 

But it concluded that drivers with a daily commute of less than six kilometres (3.7 miles) might actually use more energy by staying home with the heaters on. 

For years it was feared that the giant, energy-hungry data centres the internet depend upon could become a major contributor to climate change. But a study published in the journal Science last year suggests these fears have not been realised, thanks to unexpected leaps in efficiency.

By 2018 data centres were still only consuming about one per cent of the world's electricity, despite rocketing demand for data storage. 

Tech giants' desire to cut their electricity bills is partly to thank for this. Google, for instance, used AI to reduce the costs of cooling its data centres by 40 per cent. 

The United Nations estimates that cities account for 70 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. And with the population forecast to grow ever more urban, designing energy-efficient cities is a top priority. 

The Internet of Things (IoT)—connecting objects with sensors that can communicate and make intelligent decisions -- is already being used in urban design. 

A pilot project in Amsterdam, for example, used IoT to guide drivers to empty parking spaces, reducing the time spent driving around the city searching for one. 

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