Greentech Lead India: Telecom operators in India have
once again failed to adhere to the deadline to publicly announce their carbon
emissions as mandated in the Green Telecom Directive issued by the Department
of Telecommunication, Government of India, says Greenpeace.
There has been no information on the mandatory carbon
emission disclosure. Further Greenpeace organization also finds that the
Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) has issued a request for
proposal for 500 sites even though the pilot on around 4000 sites has already
been conducted. The RFP for 500 new sites is insignificant and shows
lack of commitment among stakeholders.
According to Greenpeace, telecom operators can
bring in a saving of INR 80, 000 crore over a period of 8 years by implementing
the Green Telecom Directive.
In August Greenpeace released its report “Enabling
Clean Talking” that chalks out a clean energy roadmap to implement Green
Telecom.
Enforcement of the DoT directive would save more than 540
million liters of diesel on an average annually, and about 3.5 billion liters
of diesel, cumulatively, by 2015. The cost and energy savings in terms of
revenue expenditure from this will be at minimum of INR 2430 crore annually,
but with diesel price shooting up, the figure could rise further. About 9
million tons of carbon emission could be saved in just over 3 years’ time.
“It is a matter of grave concern that the telecom
operators are continuously defying the government directive on green telecommunication
when in fact the directive is going to help their business. Given the defiant
position of telecom operators, we demand the government to ensure the
implementation of the green telecom directive by setting effective compliance
mechanism,” Mrinmoy Chattaraj, campaigner, Greenpeace India said.
Greenpeace urges that telecom operators should disclose
carbon emissions of their business operations under the globally accepted
framework of GHG protocol of World Resource Institute (WRI).
As the telecom operators continue their expansion in the
rural areas they have a huge opportunity to champion the green
telecommunications.
Greenpeace is calling on the telecom industry to focus on
managing its energy and carbon by substantially shifting its power generation
for network operations to renewable sources, and to proactively advocate for
economy-wide policies that combat climate change and increase the use of
renewable energy.