INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Green Technology
Green ICT : Using bits to manage watts
China-based Huawei recently inaugurated its participation in the Mobile World Congress ( MWC ) Barcelona with the “ Green Forum ” an initiative focused on how the ICT industry and digital technologies are contributing to sustainable development in the world , through case studies on green telecom network strategies and key challenges operators face when trying to achieve carbon neutrality .
In a speech at the event , David Li , President , Western Europe , Huawei , focused on how the ICT industry can use green digital telecommunications services to support its customers .
“ We are supporting other industries to reduce their carbon footprint through ICT solutions . We call this ICT enablement our ‘ carbon handprint ’. The ICT industry ’ s carbon footprint accounts for only about 2 % of total emissions . But ICT technologies can be used to reduce total global emissions by up to 20 %.”
Li said Huawei believes in using bits to manage watts . Bits are the basic units of digital information and watts the basic units of energy . Using bits to manage watts is to use digital technologies to achieve more efficient energy management . “ Integrating digital and energy technologies lets us use new technological advances in AI , connectivity and cloud computing to digitalise the energy industry .”
Many other prominent industry stakeholders in attendance at the event also spoke out about the critical importance of ICT in the world ’ s green plans .
Susana Solís Pérez , European Parliament Member , said : “ Practically , every sector can benefit from digital solutions . “
Carina Lopes , Head of Digital Future Society , Mobile World Capital Barcelona , said : “ Reaching net-zero carbon emissions is not enough . The ICT and telecoms sector has the power to lead and radically transform our society .”
Steven Moore , Head of Climate Action , GSMA , pointed out that operators depend on green energy to help achieve the targets in other sectors by saying . “ Our message to governments : We can ’ t switch to renewables by our own .”
James Crawshaw , Principal Analyst , Service Provider Operations and IT , Omdia Informa Tech , explained that : “ Carbon reduction becomes the new focus – the industry must save energy and reduce carbon emissions . From the energy saving perspective , the focus is shifting from reducing absolute energy consumption to both energy consumption reduction and energy utilisation efficiency enhancement . From the carbon reduction perspective , carbon emission per unit of data service is becoming a new measure for network greenness and an applicable definition is needed to enable better carbon reduction roadmap management .”
Telecom operators have been long-time proponents of global sustainability efforts , with the mobile sector being the first industry vertical to commit to the UN ’ s Sustainable Development Goals back in 2016 . Significant work in network transformation is still needed though for operators to reach their zero carbon targets , and the announcement by Huawei reaffirms the vendor ’ s commitment to supporting this process . p
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