According to Climate Risk, the authors of the report, this is the first attempt at quantifying the carbon savings and financial benefits that result from using telecommunications networks to conserve energy and increase clean energy use at home, in the workplace and in connecting people, enterprises and communities. The report finds that the telecommunications sector is uniquely placed to provide services that can yield nationally significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Even better, many of the telecommunication solutions for living and working in a future carbon-constrained world can actually lead to cost savings for business and the consumer.
This report is music to our ears at ICTandclimatechange.com. We’ve always believed that there is huge potential for telecoms and IT to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the economy. The problem has been proving it, let alone laying down any figures to support the claim. The report rightly points out that there is scant information in the public domain to quantify the scale of these opportunities.
The report identifies seven major opportunities for Australian consumers and businesses to avoid or reduce the release of carbon emissions, totalling 27 million tonnes of carbon a year by 2015. The list comprises:
- 1.8 million tonnes (Mt) from using broadband to remotely manage power for appliances not in use or on "stand-by"
- 2.4 Mt by improving business productivity with "in-person" high-definition videoconferencing
- 2.9 Mt with broadband based, real-time freight allocation systems to fill empty freight vehicles
- 3.0 Mt with presence-detecting services that turn off devices that are "on" but not being used
- 3.1 Mt with teleworking and working in regional centres by reducing commuter car traffic
- 3.9 Mt by bringing integrated personalised public transport to your door with a phone call
- 10.1Mt by increasing renewable energy use with networked demand-side management.
As the above list shows, the claims made in the report for increased renewable energy use dwarf the others. The report seems to suggest that ICT will allow a higher proportion of renewable energy to operate, before other plant is constrained off, by switching appliances on and off. In part, this critically depends on how the market charges for balancing and constraint costs so needs to be analysed carefully. Overall, there’s plenty of food for thought in this report - we will return. Meantime, full credit to Telstra for stepping up to the plate…or should we say, the crease?
The report is available at:
http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/media/announcements_article.cfm?ObjectID=40778
http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/csr/reports.cfm