The online workshop "Mobile Internet Impact on the Environment in the 5G Era" was held on Nov. 17, 2020, as one of 87 workshops that successfully passed the IGF MAG review of the 15th United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF 2020).

This workshop was co-organized by the China Federation of Internet Societies, the Communication University of China, and the University of Melbourne. 

Aiming to strengthen the focus on and understanding of environmental changes in various countries amid the rapid development of the mobile internet, and promoting all sectors of society to work together to improve and protect the environment, the conference invited representatives from relevant domestic and foreign authorities, universities, research institutions, and industry organizations to jointly provide suggestions on how 5G technology and applications can contribute to sustainable development.

The meeting was co-chaired by Professor Thas Nirmalathas from the University of Melbourne and Associate Professor Yan Ming from the Communication University of China.

Professor Thas, head of the University of Melbourne’s electronics and photonics research, pointed out that although 5G mobile communication networks will require a large number of base stations, it will provide unprecedented broadband capabilities. 

From mission-critical applications to large-scale scalable sensor networks, 5G has the potential to undertake a wide variety of services and applications and provide support, which will change the way people understand the energy footprint of services and network architectures.

Yan noted that in order to solve the energy consumption challenge caused by the large-scale deployment of 5G networks, various clean energy and low-power devices have begun to be applied in 5G networks. 

Just as the 4G network led into the era of mobile internet, 5G will surely bring brand-new technological upgrades to promote technological changes in various industries.

"5G is leading us into the era of green communications, and China are working together with the world to realize the future green vision."

CMCC Chief Scientist of Wireless Technologies Chih-Lin I said that the CMCC had been seriously considering the issue of electricity consumption when building the world’s largest 5G network. Although the energy consumption of a 5G base station is about three or four times that of its 4G counterpart, the peak data rate of 5G is 15 times higher than that of 4G at the same power consumption level. Thus, 5G can carry more traffic with higher energy efficiency.

Daniel Schien, an academic and computer scientist at the University of Bristol in the U.K., believed establishing energy consumption models for different parts of the digital service supply chain could help to reduce energy and related carbon emissions. 

He shared four suggestions: First, use as much renewable energy as possible in the network. Second, it is recommended to comprehensively report energy consumption so that operators, media, consumers, and the public sector can make better decisions. Third, energy consumption services should be more intuitive and transparent. Lastly, he hoped to see more cross-departmental cooperation between infrastructure providers and media organizations.

Steven Moore, responsible for the Climate Action Program at the GSMA, pointed out that about 4% of the world's electricity is used in the information and communication technology sector, and GSMA, as an industry association representing mobile operators, had promised to achieve net zero emissions in the mobile industry by 2050. 

He suggested the management of carbon emissions must have carbon emissions transparency, not only to do a good job of digital emission reduction, that is, to use smart connection technology in the mobile field and outside to reduce carbon emissions, but also to improve the ability of suppliers to ensure equipment sustainability. 

In addition, the potential development of 5G will help other industries to reduce carbon emissions. Interconnection can ensure smart manufacturing and smart management of energy.

Piotr Mieczkowski, managing director of the Poland Digital Foundation, pointed out that smart grids, the Internet of Things, and 5G connections are the basis for large-scale digitization of the energy industry and were necessary conditions for reaching an E.U. green agreement. 

Some aspects were under the coordination of the British 5G Association or the European Union, more than 50 vertical field examples had been tested throughout Europe, he said. 

He also presented his vision for the development of 5G, saying: "In Poland, we are waiting for the implementation of 5G to achieve green energy management."

Roberto Zambrana, former Chair of the Board of the ISOC Bolivian Chapter and coordinator of the Bolivian National Regional Initiative (NRI), said the differences in the development of 5G technology between various regions and countries should be considered. 

Therefore, it was necessary to encourage operators in underdeveloped areas to first modernize their 3G and 4G infrastructure, and take into account ecological benefits and low-carbon strategies when designing and deploying 5G networks. 

Operators should pay attention to reviewing the frequency band allocation to reduce the cost of access to the new frequency band spectrum required for 5G. Zambrana called on governments to sign multilateral agreements to implement a joint strategy and establish a common regulatory system for Internet mobile broadband services.

After in-depth discussion, the panel agreed the development of mobile internet in the 5G era had indeed brought a lot of convenience to society, and the correct use of 5G technology and applications would help reduce carbon emissions and achieve sustainable environmental development. 

As Yan said, “during the COVID-19 epidemic, remote consultation and medical treatment based on 5G technology played a great role. This not only solved the problem of unbalanced medical conditions, but also reduced a lot of energy consumption.” 

At the same time, in the follow-up efforts of 5G, environmental, climate and other related factors also need to be considered. It was hoped through the sharing of ideas among the guests at the seminar, the eyes of all sectors of society could be focused on environmental issues, which would not only accelerate the process of large-scale popularization of 5G networks, but also provide a guarantee for the sustainable development of the subsequent digital economy.

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a global multi-stakeholder platform that facilitates discussions on public policy issues pertaining to Internet governance. The establishment of the IGF was formally announced by the United Nations Secretary-General in July 2006. 

The Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the IGF was officially opened online during the period from Nov.2-17. Under the overarching theme “Internet for human resilience and solidarity”, the program covers four main thematic tracks: (1) Data; (2) Environment; (3) Inclusion; (4) Trust. 

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