Gabriel Solomon, GSMA's head of regulatory policy, stated that "this is the first detailed global estimate of mobile network energy consumption and equivalent carbon dioxide emissions (CO2e), and it shows how the mobile industry is making progress towards its goal of reducing its own emissions and energy costs, just as other sectors of the industry are doing. Mobile can deliver savings across a wide range of smart applications and can contribute to a reduction in total emissions that is at least four to five times its own carbon footprint."
The report used data and analysis from GSMA’s Mobile Energy Efficiency (MEE) benchmarking service to calculate the energy costs and CO2e emissions from electricity and diesel consumption of mobile networks (2) as a whole. The MEE benchmarking analysis shows that upgrading all above-average energy-consuming networks to industry average could result in potential energy cost savings for mobile operators of $1 billion annually at 2010 prices. Therefore, an upgrade of the top quartile could result in savings of approximately $2 billion annually.
Smartphones, tablets, consumer electronics, and machine-to-machine (M2M) devices are beginning to connect everything from cars to healthcare services and even entire cities, which will have a positive impact on many industrial sectors. Through these and other implementations, the mobile sector is already enabling significant reductions in GHG emissions and energy costs across a number of sectors of the economy, and there is potential for even greater savings within the mobile sector itself. Approximately 26 million mobile M2M connections worldwide (3) represent an estimated savings of around 3 million tons of CO2e in GHG emissions per year. By region:
- The United States and Canada together account for 50% of global mobile M2M connections and 38% of global GHG emission savings;
- The Asia-Pacific region accounts for 23% of M2M connections and 30% of emissions savings; Western
Europe accounts for 17% of connections and 23% of GHG savings.
Future savings will come from smart applications, often as a result of M2M communications, especially in applications such as smart grids and meters, as well as smart transport and logistics. The mobile industry has the potential to contribute to a reduction in human-caused GHG emissions. In the future, there is a significant commercial and environmental opportunity for mobile operators to help companies in other sectors and industries reduce their GHG emissions and lower their energy costs, for example:
- Mobile M2M connections worldwide in smart networks, smart meters and fleet management are expected to grow significantly by 30 to 40 percent annually, reaching nearly 100 million mobile M2M connections (4) worldwide by 2015. This would translate into a possible GHG reduction of around 18 million tonnes of CO2e, the equivalent of removing nearly 4 million vehicles from the roads (5);
Mobile has the potential to achieve a reduction in emissions of at least 900 million tonnes of CO2e by 2020, representing 1.7% of the International Energy Agency's (IEA) global GHG emissions forecast for that year under its "business-as-usual" scenario (6); and
- The emissions reduction by 2020 will result from the use of 3.5 billion M2M mobile connections (7) as well as mobile dematerialization applications, in which travel, products, and processes will be replaced by virtual alternatives.
As more operators join the GSMA's MEE benchmarking service, the accuracy of estimates for total mobile network energy consumption, energy costs, and CO2e emissions can be improved, and the results can be used to monitor the industry's long-term performance. GSMA will continue to collaborate with policymakers and standards bodies to ensure that MEE's benchmarking methodology, already recognized in a global standard by the International Telecommunication Union, is compatible with other methodologies developed by the global ICT industry. Future developments may include life cycle assessments of carbon emissions and energy based on an approach agreed upon by operators and manufacturers.
“Mobile’s Green Manifesto”
At the 2009 Mobile Asia Congress, GSMA, together with the Climate Group, presented “Mobile’s Green Manifesto,” outlining how the mobile industry planned to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per connection and highlighting the key role mobile communications could play in reducing emissions from other sectors and industries. It also provided specific policy recommendations for governments and for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, including the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15), to raise awareness of the potential of mobile communications to reduce global GHG emissions.
Shortly after the publication of “Mobile’s Green Manifesto,” GSMA established a program called Mobile Energy Efficiency (MEE) to help the industry measure and manage its emissions. The new report highlights the initial results of MEE as well as progress in the mobile network's empowerment role.
(1) Comprising 16 developed and 18 emerging markets.
(2) Mobile networks are defined as the radio access network plus the mobile elements of the core network. Energy consumed by IT systems (including data centers) and overhead costs are excluded as they are much smaller and difficult to benchmark.
(3) Source: Machina Research.
(4) Sources: GSMA analysis based on forecasts from Yankee Group and Machina Research.
(5) Assuming annual emissions of 4 tonnes of CO2e per vehicle.
(6) The IEA publishes biannual global CO2 emissions forecasts pursuant to the 2005 G8 advisory request.
(7) Source: GSMA analysis extrapolated from Vodafone's “Carbon Connections” report.
