The greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction potential of ICT: A critical review of telecommunication companies’ GHG enablement assessments

Jan C. T. Bieser, Vlad C. Coroamă, Pernilla Bergmark and Matthias Stürmer

Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2024, vol. 28, issue 5, 1132-1146

Abstract: For about a decade, telecommunication network operators (TNOs) have explored the potential greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions their customers can achieve by using TNO services (e.g., by substituting physical travel with video conferencing), the so‐called GHG enablement. Some TNOs also calculate a GHG enablement factor, which is the ratio between the GHG enablement and their own GHG footprint. Since GHG enablements usually exceed the footprint, they create the narrative that TNOs contribute to GHG reductions across society. In this paper, we systematically analyze TNO GHG enablement claims and the underlying methodological approaches. We find several methodological shortcomings and inconsistencies, such as different sets of TNO services considered, inconsistent system boundaries, potential double counting of GHG reductions, and a disregard for rebound effects. Most importantly, TNO assessments focus exclusively on those services likely to yield GHG reductions, neglecting possible GHG‐increasing services. We conclude that current GHG enablement (factors) do not accurately and comprehensively represent TNOs’ overall GHG impacts and create a flawed picture. To provide a reliable decision basis to stakeholders such as TNOs themselves, customers, investors, and policymakers, we provide eight recommendations on how to substantially improve the methodological basis.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13524

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:inecol:v:28:y:2024:i:5:p:1132-1146

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1088-1980

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Industrial Ecology is currently edited by Reid Lifset

More articles in Journal of Industrial Ecology from Yale University
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().