This report is built on a large primary data set for operational energy consumption and carbon footprint, collected from telecom operators in different countries, and complemented by publicly available data from other operators. The purpose of the study is to estimate the current magnitude and trends for the electricity consumption and operational carbon emissions of telecom operators globally, and the primary data was collected with the support of the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) and the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO).

In this report, the electricity consumption and operational carbon emissions of telecom operators are investigated, to calculate the ICT network (i.e. fixed and mobile telecom networks) operations´ share of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector impact globally,  historically (2010 and 2013) as well as currently (2015). The study covers the ICT networks, defined as fixed and mobile telcom networks, and related operator activities, but excludes enterprise networks, data centers and end-user equipment. The study draws from a similar study of ICT in Sweden 2015 [1] and uses measured and collected data. End-user equipment is outside the scope of this study.

Several other studies in the past predicted that the ICT sector, in particular the ICT networks, would increase its electricity consumption and operational carbon emissions in line with the growth in data traffic which was discussed in the previous study [1].

In the present study telecom operator data representing approximately 15% of the global fixed subscriptions, 40% of global mobile subscriptions and more than 35 countries in all regions except Oceania have been collected as input data. This represents a significant statistical foundation for further assessments and for extrapolation to the overall ICT networks. Approximately data for 10% of the global fixed and mobile subscriptions have been collected directly from operators, the remaining dataset is based on publicly reported data by some of the world’s largest telecom operators. 

The keyfindings of this study are:

• The total annual operational electricity consumption of the overall ICT networks globally is estimated to 242 TWh for 2015 including both grid (215 TWh) and on-site generated electricity (27 TWh). The total corresponds to 1.15% of the total electricity grid supply.
• The total annual operational carbon emissions of the ICT networks are estimated to 169 Mtonnes CO₂e for 2015. This corresponds to 0.53% of the global carbon emissions related to energy (about 32 Gtonnes), or 0.34% of all carbon emissions (about 50 Gtonnes).
• Between 2010 and 2015 the electricity consumption of the ICT networks grew by 31% from a level of 185 TWh which corresponded to 0.97% of the total electricity grid supply. During the same period the operational carbon emissions grew by 17%. This could be compared to the increase in number of subscriptions from 6.7B to 9.0B during the same period.
• Per subscription, the average annual operational electricity consumption, including on-site generation, has decreased slightly from 27.6 kWh to 27 kWh per subscription between 2010 and 2015. For the operational carbon emissions, the emissions per user have reduced from 21,5 kg CO₂e to 19 kg CO₂e.  The annual emissions per subscriber of 19 kg CO₂e corresponds to driving about 100 km on the highway including the fuel supply chain emissions.
• Seen in the light of earlier estimates this study shows a result which is 24% lower than the operational carbon emissions estimated by the Smarter 2020 report for 2020.

The result shows an approximately linear increase trend in annual electricity consumption and operational carbon emission. The fixed and broadband part is almost unchanged over time, so the increase is mainly associated with the expansion of mobile networks. Still the data traffic increase is in magnitude many times higher compared to the electricity consumption and operational carbon emission increase and the impact per subscription is actually decreasing in most cases.

To understand the total ICT sector´s electricity consumption and operational carbon emissions, including all user equipment and the full life cycle, further studies are needed. However, this study brings a unique data set and insights regarding one of the key components – the operations of the network part of ICT.