At a press conference this afternoon the GSMA, together with China Mobile, Huawei and The Climate Group, unveiled an initiative that aims to see the mobile industry lower its greenhouse gas emissions and demonstrate the role the market can play in lowering emissions in other sectors and industries. Through the ‘Green Manifesto’, developed by the GSMA and The Climate Group, the mobile industry outlined four goals; to reduce its total global greenhouse gas emissions per connection by 40 percent by 2020 compared to 2009, to aim for carbon neutral growth despite huge increases in mobile activity, to work with handset vendors to ensure that the energy consumed by a typical handset – in standby and while being used – is reduced by 40 percent by 2020, and to work with equipment vendors to ensure that the life cycle emissions of network equipment components are reduced by 40 percent by 2020.

“Mobile has the potential to lower carbon emissions of other industries by almost 5 times our own carbon footprint,” GSMA CEO Rob Conway told the press audience. Meanwhile China Mobile’s Chairman Wang backed the initiative and talked up his company’s efforts in this space: “Every company has a responsibility to lower carbon emissions. The industry goal is to lower by 40 percent in 2020 compared to 2009. China Mobile likes to move even faster and is committed to lowering its footprint by 20 percent in 2012. We also have the largest use of renewable power systems amongst all telecommunication operators.” Mr Kevin Tao, CEO of Huawei Devices, added that his company has provided the industry with 20,000 base stations using “40-50 percent of [traditional] power consumption and 20-30 percent of carbon footprint… We call for a joint effort to help realise our commitment to the Green Manifesto.”