GSMA Teams on Green Strategy

HONG KONG -- Today at the Mobile Asia Congress, the GSMA unveiled Mobile’s Green Manifesto, developed in collaboration with The Climate Group. Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board, GSMA, was joined at the launch by China Mobile’s Chairman Wang Jianzhou, Kevin Tao, CEO Huawei Device, and Changhua Wu, Greater China Director The Climate Group, who outlined their existing environmental undertakings and goals for the future.

The Green Manifesto sets out how the mobile industry plans to lower its greenhouse gas emissions per connection, and demonstrates the key role that mobile communications can play in lowering emissions in other sectors and industries. It makes specific policy recommendations for governments and delegates attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15), December 7-18, to realise the full potential of the role that mobile communications can take in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

GSM Association (GSMA)

In a separate release:

HONG KONG -- The GSMA, the body that represents the worldwide mobile communications industry, today announced that its Green Power for Mobile (GPM) programme is working with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, to support mobile operators in exploring the use of renewable energy base stations as a means of optimizing capital and operating expenditures. Through this collaboration, mobile operators in developing markets can benefit from technical assistance programmes, market research, and knowledge sharing programmes to help them implement large scale renewable energy powered networks.

The overall goal is to make cost effective renewable energy solutions a widely used power source for off-grid locations by 2012. The initiative offers a direct way to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy in off-grid parts of the developing world. IFC plans to identify and pursue green power investments that expand the mobile industry’s use of renewable energy powered networks in developing countries. IFC will act independently as an anchored investor, offering developing country mobile operators a variety of financial instruments to enable the implementation of viable business models that leverage renewable power for long term efficiency gains.

“We have estimated that mobile operators across the developing world will incur a US$14.6 billion diesel bill from powering off-grid base stations by 2012,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board, GSMA. “Working together with IFC, we hope to address this by helping mobile operators to expand network coverage into remote regions, deploy renewable energy base stations, reduce their energy costs and minimise impact on the environment.”

GSM Association (GSMA)