Huawei & Informa Tech held the Africa Green ICT Forum to Build a Green World

 Huawei has successfully held its Africa Green ICT Forum, alongside Informa Tech as the host of the event. The theme of the online forum was “Leading Power Digitalization for a Smart and Sustainable World.” Experts from all over the world shared their experiences and explored how to use technological innovations to help save energy and reduce emissions in various industries.

With the rapid development of emerging technologies such as 5G, cloud, AI, big data, IoT, and digital transformation, "ubiquitous connected, omnipresent intelligence" is becoming a reality. However, because of the lack of power, many parts of the world still do not have access to ICT infrastructure services. Africa has 1.2 billion people, but 50 percent of them do not have access to electricity. There is a huge energy gap. This can be related to challenges, such as consumption growth, long construction period, and high operation costs, faced by the current energy infrastructure.

The transformation and upgrading of the energy industry will help to bridge the energy divide, make green and reliable energy a reality, and enable remote regions of the world to enjoy more technological civilization.

“Energy, as the foundation of the digital world, has become a key part and an important point of competitiveness in the digital economy,” said Fang Liangzhou, Chief Marketing Officer of the Digital Power Product Line at Huawei. “The entire industry needs to attach greater importance to energy. Huawei integrates traditional power technologies and digital technologies to achieve power digitalization. We can use ‘bit to manage watt’, and provide simple, green, smart, and reliable digital power solutions to solve challenges faced by traditional power industry.”

GSMA is very concerned about the application of clean energy. Dulip Tillekeratne, who is the Senior Market Engagement Manager at GSMA, said,” In Africa, almost 32 percent of all towers are located either in off-grid or bad-grid areas and these towers still powered by non-renewable sources. We can work towards reducing this through industry focused and ecosystem focused approach.”

Paolo Gemma, Chairman of ITU-T SG5 WP2 Environment, Energy Efficiency and the Circular Economy at ITU, has a deep understanding of the industry. “Industry development and technological innovation cannot be separated from standards. A good standard can lead the rapid development of the entire industry. The establishment of energy standards is based on the latest technologies and industry development trends. Based on these standards, we build greener energy solutions that are cost-effective, efficient, and easy to evolve, and promote green networks and sustainable development.”

Speaking of how to deliver efficient networks while being green and energy-saving, Kassim Diallo, Director of the Studies and Planning Department at Orange Mali, said, “Orange Group focuses on energy saving and emission reduction in network construction. In response to the Group's strategy, Orange Mali is the first to implement digital, intelligent and green innovation solutions to minimize fuel consumption and maintenance costs, and make full use of green energy to reduce carbon emissions. our aims to build a green and energy-efficient advanced network.”

Innovative ICT technologies help accelerate the development of the digital world. It brings new ideas, models and practices to all industries, and also changes the way people live. At the same time, affects to the environment are affecting the survival of everything. ICT plays a dual role in climate change. On the one hand, ICT needs to reduce its own carbon emissions, and on the other hand, ICT, as an important technology, needs to help other industries reduce their carbon emissions.

Human society is becoming more and more intelligent, and the environmental problems continue to be more attentive by many countries. Huawei will continue to work with global operators to innovate ICT products and solutions, which can help various industries reduce carbon emissions and build a green, low-carbon and smart world.