Carbon emissions produced by fans watching a month of Netflix’s top 10 shows is equivalent to ‘driving a car beyond Saturn’ – more than 746 million miles, a report warns.
Netflix content in the global top 10 – including Stranger Things, Money Heist and Bridgerton – clock up hundreds of millions of hours’ viewing time combined in the first month since their release.
YouTube, however, emits enough carbon dioxide every year to easily surpass the equivalent greenhouse gases output of Glasgow, the site of the Cop26 climate conference.
Streaming services have a negative impact upon the environment because they require power to transfer data. This power comes largely from non-renewable sources like coal and gas which emit harmful greenhouse gasses.

Netflix is the most popular streaming service in the world, with 209 millions subscribers. Due to the power required for data transfer, streaming services can be a threat to the environment.

Bridgerton’s period drama Bridgerton is one the most popular shows on Netflix. It topped Netflix’s list of shows with the most hours viewed in the first 28 days after release – 625,000,000
Netflix and other streaming services require that data travels through a network of energy-sapping cables and routers in order to be able to stream content.
Data centres house and power the millions of computers, known as ‘servers’, that are required to make the internet work – but they require huge amounts of power 24/7.
Greening of Streaming is an organization that was created to address the growing concerns regarding the energy impact of streaming services. It has warned about the negative effects streaming services are having on the environment.
Dom Robinson, founder of Greening of Streaming, stated to the Guardian that ‘Strongly, environmental impact in streaming is a very young story’.
“People often talk about the bottlenecks in internet bandwidth caused by growing demand for streaming and gaming services. But there is plenty of capacity. It is actually about the increasing demand for power supply.
“We created Greening of Streaming to address the growing demand in the streaming industry to make positive changes that reduce the environmental impact. The technology is available to make this possible.
Netflix estimates that streaming in Europe has an average carbon footprint of 55 g of CO2e (grams equivalent to carbon dioxide equivalents) per hour.

In order to stream Netflix or other streaming services content, data must travel via a network of energy-sapping cables.
‘That’s about the same as microwaving four bags of popcorn, or three boils in an electric kettle in the UK,’ it says.
It’s also equivalent to driving about 300 metres in a car – under one quarter of a mile.
Carbon Trust says that this average consumption of users in Europe is approximately 55g, which is quite small when compared to other daily activities.
However, when you add up the total number of Netflix subscribers in the world to 209 million, it increases its carbon emissions to an astronomical level.
Netflix released September’s top-rated TV shows and films, with some impressive figures.
The top 10 TV shows, without considering films, accounted for more than 5 billion hours of television time in the first 28 days after their release.
Period drama Bridgerton topped the list for shows in terms of hours watched in the first 28 days since release – 625 million.
The first season was also viewed in record numbers by 82 million Netflix users during the same period.
Birdbox, the horror thriller Birdbox, took first place in terms of total hours viewed in their first 28-days, beating Extraction and Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman.
The figures were revealed by Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO, as part of efforts to be ‘more transparent’.

Netflix top-10 TV series and films in terms of total hours viewed in the first 28 day after their release. Bridgerton topped the show list with 625 million.

Netflix Top 10 TV Series and Films by Number of Accounts that Have Watched at Least 2 minutes in the First 28 Days of Release (Netflix counts a View as a user who has viewed a title for at least 2 minutes).
In March, the streaming giant stated its goal to achieve net zero emissions by 2022.
Net zero refers to any emissions that would be compensated by schemes to offset the equivalent amount of greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere. This could include planting trees or using technology such as carbon capture and storage.
However, its own plans to become net zero are only based on the carbon footprint of its corporate operations and the making of films and TV shows – not the emissions created by customers watching content on the platform.
Daniel Schien, senior lecturer and computer scientist at the University of Bristol, stated to the Guardian that the calculation of the carbon footprint should include user devices because that is where digital services are being consumed.
“Excluding this part of the footprint will hinder the ability manage and reduce it.”