Playing video games and combatting climate change go hand in hand, as it turns out. The Playing for the Planet alliance brings some of the largest companies in video games together to take action against the impending doom that is climate change. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) President and CEO Jim Ryan spoke at the United Nations Climate Summit to explain how the PS5 will contribute to these efforts.

Ryan announced that the PS5 will be able to suspend gameplay with much lower power consumption than the PS4. This process is estimated to consume .5 watts on the PS5--significantly less compared to the PS4's 8.5 watts recorded by a study from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Getting as low as .5 watts will be an interesting challenge, as Ryan claims significant efforts were made to reduce the power consumption of the PS4. Regardless of these efforts, the NRDC study found that the PS4 consumed more than twice the annual energy the PS3 did, with more of this energy coming from standby mode than from playing games.

Ryan also estimated that SIE has avoided 16 million metric tons of carbon emissions to date. He expects this number to rise to 29 million metric tons over the course of the next decade. He says a carbon footprint assessment of SIE's gaming services will be reported to its data centers at some point in the future.

SIE isn't the only company on board with the Playing for the Planet alliance. A press release from today details the commitments Microsoft, Google, Ubisoft, Twitch, and others have made. Together, they hope to create a 30 million ton reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030.

[EMBED_VIMEO]https://player.vimeo.com/video/361634676?byline=0&portrait=0[/EMBED_VIMEO]

The planet needs all the help it can get. A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that we need to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celcius above temperatures in the pre-industrial era. We have roughly a decade to do so or we risk facing immense harm to every facet of life on this planet. Doing so will require extensive efforts across the globe.