Greentech Lead India:
Greenpeace has released its report “Enabling Clean Talking” that chalks out a
clean energy roadmap to implement the progressive Green Telecom Directive
issued by the Department of Telecom, Government of India to ensure economic
stability of the telecom sector as well as generate savings to the tune of more
than Rs. 10,000 crore.
According to Greenpeace report, Indian telecom industry can
bring a return on investment to the tune of Rs 13,000 crore if it phases out
diesel completely and replaces it with renewable energy technologies by year
2020.
The report which has been drafted jointly by
Greenpeace and the Chennai based industry research firm Energy Alternative
India (EAI), emphasizes that if the Green Telecom Directive is implemented
effectively on ground, with mandatory compliance clauses within, it can help
save the Indian telecom sector over Rs 2430 crore on its annual energy
expenditure, apart from a saving of over INR 380 crore to the state exchequer.
It also suggests simplifying some of the clauses related to
carbon emission disclosures and synchronizing it with the global standards
along with providing fiscal support to the telecom sector for incentivizing
clean energy transition.
After releasing the report, former secretary to the Ministry
of New and Renewable Deepak Gupta, said, “Given the volatile pricing of the
crude oil, adopting high sustainability scenario is the new mantra for the
industry to ensure their long-term business stability and profitability. The
Greenpeace roadmap for the implementation of the Green Telecom Directive
provides a futuristic pathway for the telecom industry based on clean energy
sourcing and low-carbon utilization. The telecom sector should decouple its
business from rising carbon emission and we all know they can do it.”
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.
About 9 million tons of carbon emission could be saved in just over 3 years’
time.
The telecom sector needs to adopt the highest level of
energy efficiency and significant deployment of renewable energy technology
powering its telecom network infrastructure. The roadmap also outlines an
alternate and more structured approach from that of the Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India (TRAI).
The alternate approach of the report suggests that the first
step is to eliminate diesel consumption in rural and semi-urban areas. 70 per
cent of India’s towers are in these areas. With an ambition to be diesel
free by 2020, 12.5 percent of these towers need to be retrofitted every year
resulting in the entire 100 per cent of the towers going diesel-free within 8 years
For the telecom companies average savings would be INR
10,000 crore every year that adds up to nearly INR 80,000 crore over the 8 year
period.
“With growth, the sector’s appetite for energy will
increase, making it a significant source of carbon emissions unless the
industry adopts and advocates renewable energy use and backs laws to cut
emission,” said Greenpeace India Campaigner and co-author of the report
Mrinmoy Chattaraj.
“The telecom sector is well positioned to transit
to a low-carbon growth trajectory. They must use their influence to promote
policies that will allow them to grow responsibly without helping to fuel
climate change,” Chattaraj said.