Telcos in spotlight as COP29 tackles tech’s climate impact

Digital technology was higher on the agenda at this year’s COP29 U.N. climate change conference, as global leaders wrestle with the impact of the tech industry’s growth. For the first time, the international gathering had a dedicated Digitalization Day where it secured commitments for encouraging the adoption of digital solutions and limiting tech’s use of resources. 

Telecom and IT companies joined government officials and international organisations in high-level talks on the COP29 Declaration on Green Digital Action at the two-week event in Baku, Azerbaijan. Companies participating included Alibaba, Cisco, Fujitsu, Google, Huawei, Nokia, Orange, SAP, ServiceNow and ZTE.

The Green Digital Action Declaration has received endorsements from 1,000 governments, organisations and private sector companies. 

The Declaration is “a pledge to reduce the environmental footprint of going digital, enhance data-driven decision-making, and strengthen vital digital communications infrastructure against the impacts of climate change”, according to a Fortune commentary co-written by Tomas Lamanauskas, Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and Nigar Arpadarai, a member of the parliament of Azerbaijan.

It recognizes a fundamental dilemma: digital technology offers solutions to combat the effects of climate change but is also part of the problem. Greater use of technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), means more carbon emissions, e-waste and consumption of energy and water. The ambition is to reach agreement on achieving more sustainable tech development. 

High expectations for COP29’s digital ambitions

The networking sector has a foot in both sides of the issue. 

“The Digitalization Day is an important recognition of the enabling role digital technologies can play both in climate adaptation and mitigation, as well as the important responsibility we have in reducing the carbon intensity of running our digital economy,” said Justin Keeble, Managing Director for Sustainability at Google Cloud.

Subho Mukherjee, Vice President and Global Head of Sustainability at Nokia, said the company is at COP29 to discuss “the significant role of technology and digitalization in combatting climate change and the positive impact of technology on industries and society. We will also stress the importance of constantly minimizing the footprint of the technology itself by looking to break the traditional links between the growth in data and growth in energy use.”

He added that he hoped the talks will result in more collaboration across industries and increased public/private sector cooperation.

Telefónica welcomed the Digitalization Day and said the Declaration “underscores the critical role” of digital technologies in climate action.

“[The Declaration] calls on stakeholders to actively leverage digital tools to drive climate solutions, foster resilient and sustainable digital infrastructure, and reduce the environmental impact of digitalization itself,” said Maya Ormazabal, Director of Environment and Human Rights at Telefónica.

Jenny Sandahl, Head of Environmental Sustainability at Ericsson, said she hoped the Digitalization Day “leads to a bigger acceptance of digital as one important lever in decarbonizing society.”

Reining in tech’s impact

But the tech sector’s carbon footprint is expanding, especially with the rapid rise of AI. The International Energy Agency (IEA) warned earlier this year that electricity consumption from data centers, AI and cryptocurrencies could double by 2026. AI is a “relatively small” part of global data centre electricity use, but it has become a driver of growth, according to the IEA.

The ITU’s latest Greening Digital Companies report shows the scale of the challenge for tech firms’ own operations as well as across their supply chains. Out of the 200 digital companies that were evaluated, 166 contributed nearly 1% of the world’s total energy-related emissions in 2022. 

As for the telecom sector’s role, five telcos ranked among the top ten companies with the highest electricity consumption. The ITU also found that just 16 companies purchased 100% renewable electricity, of which six were telcos. 

Ericsson sees a less pessimistic outlook for the telecom sector’s future energy demand, according to Sandahl. The vendor has evaluated public data on energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in the sector for its upcoming Ericsson Mobility Report. It found that electricity use has increased by approximately 6% since 2020 while greenhouse gas emissions have decreased. 

Sandahl said the “slight” electricity rise is due to a couple of factors: “Telecom and data center operators are purchasing green energy to a much higher degree, and the overall energy mix have a higher portion of renewables.”

But she acknowledged that the emissions reduction “is not enough and more has to be done by the entire sector.”

Riding COP29’s momentum for sustainability push 

The Declaration tabled at COP29 builds on the ITU’s Green Digital Action (GDA) that was launched at COP28 last year and has attracted 50 members, including telcos Axiata, BT, e&, KDDI, MTN, Orange, Safaricom, Tele2, Telefonica, T-Systems and Veon.

One of the outcomes from GDA is a pledge from 11 operators, led by GSMA, to work with governments to support cell broadcasts and location-based SMS as part of the ITU’s Early Warnings for All initiative so that people are alerted to extreme weather events.  

Telcos and their partners are keen to show in other ways how connectivity is part of the solution for mitigating climate change as well as how they are tackling their own emissions.

“[Digitalization] promotes energy efficiency in both industry and households, and facilitates a connected lifestyle with more sustainable habits, such as teleworking, online learning, and video calls, all of which contribute to decarbonization,” said Ormazabal.

Jen Hawes-Hewitt, Head of Strategic Programs and Solutions, Global Telecom Industry, at Google Cloud, said that the telecoms industry is “a critical enabler” for a “green digital future” as well as “a sizable energy consumer.”

“At Google Cloud, we’re working closely with our telecoms customers in helping address their sustainability challenges, energy efficiency being a key one," she said. 

For example, Google Cloud participated in a TM Forum Moonshot Catalyst sustainability challenge that applied AI and machine learning to the mobile network to better balance the provisioned power resources with the real-time demand on a cell site. The project “demonstrated material KwH savings and opex reductions, without compromising customer experience at a Tier 1 operator,” she said.

“At Google, we have a unique opportunity to help lead the transition to a more sustainable future by using AI to make climate information more accessible and understandable, and to drive innovation forward,” said Keeble.

For Nokia, the role of telcos is twofold: “To provide enhanced connectivity networks and digital solutions that enable the full power of AI (networks for AI) while also providing AI solutions that enable networks that achieve greater resource efficiency (energy, water, materials), improved productivity, increasing resilience and more flexibility through automation, analytics, predictability and insights (AI for networks),” said Mukherjee.