Saturday 16 November 2024 declared itself COP’s first ‘Digitalisation Day’.
It has been 30 years since the first COP, but it’s only in the last 10 years that most people have been able to access the internet through their phones.
Incredibly, whilst 71% of the adult population now have this access, around 1.6bn people do not. And this means they are going without many things most of us take for granted.
A Digital World in Our Pockets
Modern smartphones combine a phone, music player, camera, notepad, calendar, language textbook, bank and much more into one compact device. They’ve revolutionised our lives with innovations like route mapping, simultaneous translation, health monitoring, AI chatbots, and instant communication allowing us to beam ourselves around the world into any friend, family member or work contact’s hand.
Perhaps even more incredibly, all of this has been achieved whilst keeping the energy use and carbon emissions of the ICT sector a small proportion of an economy’s overall share. This is something to celebrate. This ‘dematerialisation’ of the economy has brought about environmental savings whilst at the same time providing people around the world with a huge amount of utility.
The ICT sector achieves all this while consuming just 4% of global electricity and producing less than 2% of carbon emissions. Over the past decade, sector electricity usage grew by 15%, significantly lower than the 28% increase across all sectors. This speaks to the industry’s efficiency gains, even as it supports more complex technologies like AI. With all this carbon emissions have only increased by 6%, compared to a global increase of 5% during the same period.
We can expect to see electricity use increase further, as many more use cases are developed for smart connected technologies. However, the increases will be constrained by the overall amount and cost of energy required. This is why it’s wise to take the eye-watering predictions of AI energy use with a pinch of salt.
AI’s Role in a Sustainable Future
AI is also able to do something that previous technology iterations have not been able to – it will have the human trait of being able to improve itself. Given it will become more powerful than human reasoning in the coming years, this is likely to result in significant innovation.
This means that we will be able to direct the incredible computational abilities of AI to rethink sustainability challenges. This is already happening with network energy efficiency where AI is being deployed to inform when to power down networks during times of low customer use. We can expect similar gains for renewable energy, material efficiency, and much more, including directing AI towards solving the challenge of its own energy use.
Celebrating Digitalisation at COP29
Digitalisation took centre stage at COP29 through the global ‘We Don’t Have Time’ (WDHT) platform, which broadcast live from COP’s Blue Zone where all country pavilions, delegations and negotiations take place.
The GSMA partnered with WDHT and the Exponential Roadmap Initiative, both fantastic initiatives that are helping to share knowledge about climate solutions, mobilising global action to net zero. Joined by industry leaders from Jazz, Singtel and Ericsson, our panel discussion focused on:
- Emissions transparency: encouraging operators to disclose data and set ambitious carbon targets aligned with limiting global warming to 1.5°C.
- Sustainability-linked financing: tying green practices to funding opportunities.
- Eco-friendly innovation: embedding sustainability into customer offerings.
Governments as Key Enablers
On the industry moving to net zero, there is positive progress with 70 mobile operators, covering around of global connections aligning their voluntary carbon targets to limiting heating to 1.5C.
While these operators are reducing their carbon footprint through energy efficiency and switching to renewable energy, challenges persist in regions with limited access to renewables. Governments must step in to open up energy markets, enabling businesses to invest in renewable power purchase agreements.
Digital Innovation: A 2030 Opportunity
During COP29 the GSMA also collaborated with the host nation Azerbaijan, to shine a light on the powerful role the mobile industry plays in accelerating decarbonisation and boosting resilience, in the face of our rapidly changing climate.
With contributions from the Azeri Ministry of Digital Development and Transport, the Azeri Information Communication Technologies Agency, Azercell, Nokia and the ITU, we also touched on the ways that operators and key suppliers are working together to overcome sector-wide challenges, on the path to net zero.
There is huge potential for green digital innovation to support 2030 targets, with estimates that up to 20% reduction could be achieved through their deployment. Unlocking the potential of smart energy grids, energy and material-efficient manufacturing, precision agriculture technologies and self-regulating buildings would all help to meet national reduction targets.
As well as helping to tackle emissions, connected technologies are also crucial to address climate risks. With extreme weather events happening more frequently, countries need to communicate urgent information to citizens to help them get to safety. The GSMA supports the global Early Warnings for All Initiative, which aims to cover the whole population by the end of 2027.
A Unified Commitment to Green Digital Action
At COP29, the Green Digital Action Declaration brought together hundreds of governments, civil society, and businesses, including mobile network operators and the GSMA, to affirm a shared commitment to address the interconnected green and digital transitions together.
This joint initiative, spearheaded by the ITU and COP29 Presidency, highlights the power of collaboration in addressing climate change, and the level of support demonstrates how seriously stakeholders are taking the issue. This is expected to become even more high profile at the next COP in Brazil as digital technologies become more useful tools of climate action.
Looking Ahead
The GSMA remains steadfast in its mission to support, encourage and accelerate climate action across the mobile industry. There remain many challenges to meeting 2030 interim targets, from tackling supply chain emissions to ensuring our sector is prepared for the rapid changes in climate already being experienced.
But through concerted collaboration and a determination to show leadership, the industry is rising to these challenges and putting itself at the heart of the global net zero transition.