Climate Action - Assisting business towards carbon neutrality

Telecom contribution to a low carbon economy

Telecom has changed the world, and new services continue to change our everyday behavior. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector has contributed to increased productivity and supported economic growth across both developed and developing countries.  The ICT sector consumes approximately 2% of global CO2 emissions, and mobile telecoms a small fraction of that (.2% of the 2%).  Yet studies show that advanced ICT services, including both fixed and mobile broadband, have the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of other sectors, such as transport and buildings, by up to 15-35% by 2020. This is greater than the current annual emissions of either US or China.  The potential of telecom to contribute to a low carbon economy is increasingly being recognized.

Ericsson’s carbon footprint

From our own carbon footprint, we know that more than 2/3s of the CO2 impact of mobile telecom occurs when the telecom network is in operation.  For that reason, our first priority is on improving energy efficiency during the use phase, and we have a number of initiatives and solutions to support this aim, including developing the energy efficient products and designing energy optimized mobile networks for our customers.

Power solutions in emerging markets

We also see that more than 90% of new subscriber growth will be in emerging markets.  Whether in Africa, India or China, one of the most challenging issues that operators face is how to get power to the site.

A typical ratio site in rural areas can consume as much as 20,000 liters of diesel per year. As diesel prices soar, energy often represents a major part of operators’ operation expenditures

Where sites are beyond the reach of an electricity grid, or where the electricity supply is unreliable– and are remote enough to make the regular maintenance and refueling of diesel generators prohibitive – there are several cost-effective alternative energy sources available, and their importance is growing.

Solar

Ericsson was first in the telecom industry to find viable solar solutions in 2000, when we announced our first solar site in Morocco.  We continue to exploit the unlimited power of the sun, and today have more than 200 sunsites in operation in northern Africa, Mexico, Indonesia and elsewhere and most recently announced the first solar site in South America in Suriname.  The use of solar is about how to bring power to a site in remote areas as well as increasing access to communications for people.

Hybrid

In the case where sites may be too big to be economically and technically viable with solar, we also have innovative solution to cut diesel usage in half.  The Hybrid solution alternates between battery and diesel generators. Instead of having two diesel generators working alternately, Ericsson’s new hybrid energy solution for diesel and battery replaces one of these diesel generators with a battery bank with specially designed batteries that can handle a large amount of charges and discharges.

Biofuels

Ericsson has also pioneered the use of biofuels in telecoms. For instance, Ericsson, Idea Cellular and the GSM Association Development Fund have launched several base stations powered by locally produced biofuels to extend Idea’s commercial mobile network in rural India. They are being deployed at sites that have not previously had access to a mobile network and are located in areas with unreliable power supply. In the long term, it is expected that locally produced jatropha oil will be used, as soon as this is available in sufficient quantities. The selected sources for biodiesel have low environmental impact and follow responsible environmental practices for the production of biodiesel.

Village solar chargers

With Sony Ericsson, we have developed a solar charger for mobile phones intended for use in villages almost anywhere in the world. This innovation is capable of recharging at

least 30 mobile phone batteries per day and eight phones simultaneously. It has been deployed in the UN's Millennium Villages in ten countries in sub-Sahara Africa.

Smart use of ICT to reduce CO2 emissions

The provision of telecommunications in itself can have broader benefits to society and help in reducing CO2 emissions, a contributor to climate change.

Ericsson estimates that societal energy use and CO2 emissions could be reduced by 5-20 percent between now and 2020. Examples of telecom applications that can support behavioral change are technologies for facilitating remote working and video conferencing that reduce travel and the need for large, energy intensive workplaces, and energy monitoring systems that remotely control heating and lighting, bringing energy efficiencies in the home and workplace.

Recently, WWF commented that travel was one of the greatest contributors to an individual’s carbon footprint.  A recent Ericsson study revealed that business users of mobile broadband services reduced their carbon footprint by typically 5–10 percent (and by as much as 17 percent), by reducing their kilometers traveled.

What does this mean for mobile phone subscribers?

The annual CO2 emissions per average GSM subscriber have reduced to about 25kg in 2000,

down from around 180kg for first-generation networks in 1985. The 25kg CO2 equates to the same emissions created by driving an average European car on the motorway for around one hour.

At the same time, the functionality of mobile phones has increased dramatically over the past two decades, transforming the mobile phone to a device capable of far more than simple voice calls. Subscribers can perform many more services for a reduced CO2 impact and multiple devices can be eliminated.  You no longer need a camera, a walkman and a phone. One smart devices can do it all.

Optimizing the energy-efficiency of mobile networks and utilizing alternative energy sources, not only reduces environmental impact, it also cuts network costs and helps to make communication more affordable for everyone.