Cheat sheet on sustainability tools for data centres
03 February 25
Bianca Sofian
Cheat sheet summarising and highlighting the key sustainability tools for data centres in the EU.
Belgian postal regulator publishes sustainability reporting methodology for parcel operators
24 January 25
Michael van Maris van Dijk
BIPT, the communications regulator in Belgium, has published a methodology to be used by parcel delivery operators when calculating and reporting their greenhouse gas emissions.
Holistic thinking needed to ensure that AI delivers positive environmental benefits
23 January 25
Peter Dunn
Telecoms companies should view artificial intelligence as part of a broader sustainability strategy encompassing all aspects of their operations if the benefits of the technology are to overcome the environmental costs of its introduction. In the same way, policy makers need to develop future frameworks in a holistic way. These were some of the conclusions of a report, produced by Liberty Global and EY.
EU’s first biennial transparency report highlights climate progress
23 January 25
Emilie Degand
The EU and its member states, as parties to the Paris Agreement, submitted their first biennial transparency report. The EU’s biennial transparency report reported significant progress, including a 32% reduction in net emissions compared to 1990 levels. Additionally, some €28.6 billion was provided in public climate finance and €7.2 billion in private finance to assist developing countries in reducing emissions and adapting to climate impacts.
Environmental impacts scarcely addressed in the AI Act
19 January 25
Bianca Sofian
The AI Act refers to energy-related impacts, establishing measures that track the energy consumption of training and running AI systems, as well as developing energy efficient AI models. However, the Act does not directly address other relevant environmental impacts concerning AI systems, such as water consumption, resource extraction and electronic waste.
Smartphone production causes biodiversity loss of nearly 2m hectares each year
14 January 25
Peter Dunn
An ABN AMRO study found that the production of just three common consumer goods (smartphones, trainers and sofas) destroys every year the equivalent of a wildlife habitat just under two-thirds the size of the Netherlands. Of the three studied consumer goods, the report found that smartphones cause the greatest habitat loss, at 1.9m hectares per year.