Towards a high-bandwidth, low-carbon future: telecommunications-based opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Abstract

Telecommunications networks can help reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by almost five per cent by 2015 and deliver up to $6.6 billion a year in cost savings for Australian businesses and households, according to a new report released today by Telstra. By using telecommunications networks there are opportunities to reduce or avoid carbon emissions in Australia by an amount and at a pace that meets the Kyoto Protocol target and is in keeping with the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Stern Review. The Report identifies seven major opportunities for Australian consumers and businesses to reduce or avoid the release of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. These opportunities, if implemented by 2015, could help reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by around 27 million carbon tonnes per year