ICT can reduce global emissions by 20%

MWC Barcelona 2021 organized its special session titled ‘Huawei Day 0 Green Forum’ where David Li, President, Huawei Western Europe along with other industry stakeholders shared their views and opinion this week.

The forum this year focused on how the ICT industry is embracing the EU Green Deal and how digital technologies are contributing to sustainable development in the region through case studies on green telecom network strategies and key challenges operators face when trying to achieve carbon neutrality.

In his speech at the event, Li focused on how the ICT industry can use green digital telecommunications services to support its customers. He expressed, “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%.”

He also mentioned that Huawei believes in using bits to manage watts. Bits are the basic units of digital information, and watts the basic units of energy. Thus, using bits to manage watts is to use digital technologies to achieve more efficient energy management.

Many other prominent industry stakeholders in attendance at the event also spoke out about the critical importance of ICT in the region’s green plans, including Susana Solís Pérez, Member, European Parliament; Steven Moore, Head of Climate, GSMA; Monica Sala, Chief Technology Officer, Orange Spain; Juan Manuel Caro Bernat, Director of Operational Transformation, Telefónica Group; Blanca Ceña, Managing Director, Vantage Towers Spain; and James Crawshaw, Principal Analyst of Service Provider Operations and IT, Omdia Informa Tech.

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 recent announcement by Huawei reaffirms their commitment to supporting the process.

MWC Barcelona 2021 runs from June 28 to July 1 in Barcelona, Spain. Huawei will showcase its products and solutions at Stand 1C50 in Hall 1 at Fira Gran Via. For more information, please visit https://carrier.huawei.com/en/events/mwc2021.