Green Telecommunications: Policies and Practices for More Sustainable Networks

Digital transformation is driving development gains across the world but also strains resources. The energy demand from telecom and other digital infrastructure is increasing and adding to carbon emissions. As a result, countries need to contend with two challenges: expanding digital access, while at the same time managing energy resources and the associated climate footprint. This guide provides inspiration on how to achieve these interlinked goals.

The World Bank practitioner’s guide, Green Telecommunications: Policies and Practices for more Sustainable Networks, is designed for policymakers, regulators, and other practitioners in low- and middle-income countries. The guide focuses on green measures across the telecom lifecycle, from planning to operations to decommissioning, and provides recommendations on ways to incentivize and de-risk green digital transformation.

Key messages:

Energy efficiency measures, use of renewable energy, and circularity principles are the main levers for greening telecom networks. The green profile of a network is largely determined by decisions made in the planning phase. Efforts should focus on the energy-intensive last mile service delivery, which accounts for up to 80 percent of all emissions across the value chain.

Telecom operators can cut costs and improve service reliability and affordability by managing energy consumption and exploring green energy solutions. Solar-powered telecom sites can prove nearly 50 percent less expensive than fossil fuel-powered sites over the asset lifetime, reinforcing the business case for green telecom practices. Governments can reduce barriers to deploying renewable energy for on-site and backup use and establish incentives for operators to produce, store, and sell surplus energy to the grid through supportive policies.

Governments can make use of policies, standards, incentives to shape the enabling environment for green telecom. Green public procurement of telecom infrastructure, for example, leverages government purchasing power by requiring bidders to meet specific environmental criteria, driving more sustainable outcomes.

This guide was produced with support from the Korea Green Growth Trust Fund.