Sydney Sawaya | Associate Editor September 17, 2020 11:30 PM

AT&T caught the tail end of the green echo reverberating throughout the tech industry this week, announcing a new commitment to be carbon neutral across its entire global operations by 2035.

To get there, the company plans to focus on six targets. By virtualizing network functions the operator says it will eliminate areas of energy-intensive network equipment and in turn rely on low-cost, energy-efficient hardware. It’s transitioning to a low-emissions fleet, optimizing routes, switching to hybrid vehicles, and reducing the overall size with a goal of decarbonizing its fleet. And the operator said it will accelerate its energy efficiency and network optimization efforts; expand its efforts to drive sustainable feature film and TV production; support the renewable energy marketplace; and invest in carbon offsets. 

In addition to its mitigation commitment to reach carbon neutrality, AT&T is also stepping up its efforts to be more resilient to the impacts of climate change by expanding the scope of its Climate Change Analysis Tool (CCAT) tool to cover the entire contiguous U.S.

Snippet:

A Green Tech Echo

AT&T’s moves come at the end of what has been a steady flow of green announcements this week.

The global mobile industry united earlier this year under industry trade group GSMA to take collaborative action in tackling climate change with the release of the Science-Based Target (SBT) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the telecommunications industry. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and 27 other mobile operators from around the world jumped on board with SBTs to reduce emissions trajectories for mobile, fixed, and data center operators; curb the risks and effects of climate change; and ultimately help companies reach the ambitious Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming.

To read the full article please see: https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/att-catches-carbon-neutral-bug-expands-ccat-coverage/2020/09/

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Matthew Barton  30th April 2020

With data centres set to have a bigger carbon footprint than the whole aviation industry, smart technology’s benefits need urgent re-examination.

The embedded energy costs of communications technologies and voracious digital consumption are actually exacerbating global heating rather than helping prevent it, the recent Shift Project report, Lean ICT, Toward Digital Sobriety, suggests. 

The report recommends a shift from “intemperance to sobriety in our relationship with digital technologies”  – basically the idea that individuals and companies could self-limit their purchase and usage of equipment. But this clearly runs counter to the financial imperatives of the big tech companies and their marketing strategies. Read the full article at https://theecologist.org/2020/apr/30/smart-techs-carbon-footprint

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Source

Sitran lausunto 26 GHz taajuusalueen huutokaupasta

Published 3/6/2020

Opinion

Sitra is grateful for the opportunity to comment on the auction of the 26 GHz band.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are progressing at an alarming rate. For example, the Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in October 2018, highlighted the exceptional gravity of the situation. Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees requires immediate and unprecedented action. ¹

According to a May 2019 Intergovernmental Panel on Nature (IPBES) report, the loss of biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides is now unprecedented ² . The impoverishment of nature also threatens the well-being of mankind.

Sitra encourages measures that promote the sustainable use of natural resources, slow down climate change, safeguard biodiversity and create economic growth and employment with less environmental impact. The aim should be to decouple economic growth from the use of natural resources and climate emissions in order to adapt our societies to the limits of the Earth’s carrying capacity. Digitalisation and many technological solutions help with this decoupling, and it is therefore important to promote them.

However, digitalisation and the use of technology are also factors that accelerate climate change and reduce biodiversity and therefore need to be addressed. These include the increasing use of energy and natural resources.

To date, little research has been done into 5G technology and its impact on the environment. Some studies have suggested that the 5G network and its frequencies could have adverse effects on the environment such as humans, plants, animals, insects and microbes. ^{3 However,} scientific evidence on the health and environmental impacts of 5G networks is contradictory. ^{3, 4}

In its statement, Sitra emphasizes that the latest scientific information on the health, environmental and climate impact of 5G technology should be taken into account when deciding on the 5G network and the frequencies it uses. In the light of the seriousness and urgency of the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis, Sitra emphasizes the importance of a comprehensive and multidisciplinary assessment of the latest research data. If the necessary research data is not available, it must be obtained before making a decision.

Sources:

IPCC (2018): Global Warming of 1.5˚C. Summary for Policymakers

² IPBES (2019): Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Summary for Policymakers

³ European Parliamentary Research Service, EPRS (2020): Effects of 5G wireless communication on human health

⁴ Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks, SCHEER (2018): Statement on Emerging Health and Environmental Issues

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December 12, 2019  By Peter Judge

Newly introduced 5G mobile communications will drastically increase the energy demands of data centers, according to a German study sponsored by utility provider E.ON.

The report (PDF, German) from RWTH Aachen University, found that by 2025, high-bandwidth 5G networking would drive such a boost in demand for data that the energy consumed by German data centers would increase by 3.8 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year, the equivalent of the electricity consumed by the 2.5 million people in Cologne, Dusseldorf, and Dortmund.

Energy thirst

This thirst for energy will be triggered by new technical possibilities, the study says, including organizations building their own mobile networks, and a surge in people streaming movies. These possibilities will be enabled by small local Edge data centers, and those Edge data centers will demand power.

E.ON board member Karsten Wildberger hopes it will be possible to build in renewable sources for these facilities, right from the start: “By 2030, up to 13 percent of the world’s power requirements will be consumed by data centers. We need sustainable energy supply for that.” He says it is possible to do that already: “We are supplying data centers with clean energy or building highly efficient, decentralized generation facilities onsite, such as combined heat and power plants or fuel cells – often combined with PV systems or wind energy.”

In the Frankfurt area, network operator Syna, an E.ON subsidiary, commissioned a transformer station to secure the power supply of planned data centers in the region, and is now looking into ways to cover these energy requirements sustainably.

E.ON is also promoting the reuse of waste heat. At present, 13 billion kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity are converted into heat in German data centers, the company says, and virtually all of this is released into the environment. The RWTH study found that only 19 percent of data centers use part of their waste heat, usually to heat their own buildings and hot water.

Wildberger says the industry will have 8TWh of waste heat available by 2025, and wants to see it used: “Today, waste heat from data centers remains unused far too often. Data centers should be used to supply heat to housing estates and entire city districts. This is a very concrete and important contribution to coupling the electricity and heat sectors, which we implement together with our customers.” The company has a heating and cooling network product called ectogrid.

The company also plans to help individuals curb their energy waste with an awareness campaign called ‘Green Internet Day.’ On 8 January, E.ON will stop its usual activities on the Internet and on social media channels, and instead point to green Internet solutions.

The data center study was based on a literature search carried out by Prof. Madlener of the Institute for Future Energy Consumer Needs and Behavior (FCN) at RWTH Aachen University.

https://www.eon.com/content/dam/eon/eon-com/Documents/de/5G-Standard%20und%20Rechenzentren_11.12.2019.pdf

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By Michael Le Page

Our tech addiction is cooking the planet. The manufacture and use of smartphones, computers and TVs will produce 4 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and 8 per cent by 2025.

That is the conclusion of a report on the sustainability of the digital technology sector put together by 12 experts for a Paris-based think tank called The Shift Project, which says that energy use in this sector is increasing by 9 per cent every year.

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