From the Mobile Asia Congress in Hong Kong, the GSM
Association (GSMA), in collaboration with The Climate Group, introduced a Green
Manifesto, a document outlining goals for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, as
well as steps that mobile communications companies can take to lower emissions
in other sectors.
“With the right public policies in place, the mobile
industry can make a major contribution in the fight against global warming,
lowering emissions in other sectors by more than 4.5 times mobile’s own
footprint, which is the equivalent of taking one in every three cars off the
road,” Rob Conway, the CEO of GSMA, said in a Nov. 18 statement.
GSMA represents 800 of the world’s mobile operators,
as well as 200-plus companies in the mobile ecosystem, spanning 219 countries.
The Climate Group is a not-for-profit organization that works with government
and business leaders to advance policies that advance a low-carbon economy.
Also at the Manifesto’s launch were Wang Jianzhou, chairman of China
Mobile; Kevin Tao, CEO of Huawei;
and Changhua Wu, greater China director of The Climate Group.
A proposed purpose of the Manifesto, which has four central
goals, is to offer policy recommendations to the delegates and politicians who
will be attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen,
on Dec. 7-18.
The first goal of the Manifesto is to, by 2020, reduce
total global greenhouse gas emissions per connection by 40 percent,
compared to 2009 numbers. The second aims to bring the mobile industry to
carbon-neutral growth; while the number of mobile connections is expected to
rise by 70 percent by 2020, the industry goal is to remain at a total emissions
level of 245 megatons of carbon dioxide per year.
The third goal of the Manifesto is to work with handset
vendors to reduce mobile handset energy use, both when in use and in standby
modes, by 40 percent, and the fourth is to ensure that the lifecycle emissions
of network equipment components are also reduced by 40 percent by 2020.
“Wasting energy is just that — a
waste,” said Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group, in a joint statement
with GSMA.
“Mobile technologies are at the forefront of a new
energy information revolution and have a major role to play in helping
individuals and businesses cut their emissions and save money by making it
easier to monitor and manage energy use,” he added. “Using our
phones to cut energy in our homes and offices, from electric cars and solar
panels, to washing machines, fridges and TVs is not rocket science and could
become as commonplace and simple as sending a text.”
The Green Manifesto additionally calls on governments to
sign a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, to establishing long-term targets for
the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and for policies to be implemented
on the country, state and regional level.
“As the findings from our Asian Observatory research
show, over the next five years an additional 1 billion connections are expected
to be added as the Asia Pacific market is projected to exceed 3 billion
connections in 2010,” said GSMA’s Conway.
“It therefore seems pertinent to launch the Green
Manifesto in the Asia Pacific region, the world’s largest mobile market
— which has the potential to make such a huge and positive impact in
terms of the green goal that we are striving to achieve.”
Enterprise Mobility News & Reviews 
