Summary

  • European administrations propose expanding ITU Resolution 182 from broad climate language toward lifecycle measures that include electricity, water, raw materials, biodiversity and e-waste.
  • The text asks ITU for common methods and annual reporting, then invites countries to use environmental indicators in telecom strategy, regulation and procurement.

The cloud is excellent at looking weightless. The European proposal filed as contribution 75, addendum 34 would make it carry a water bill. Posted by ITU on 23 October, the proposed revision of Resolution 182 puts electricity, raw materials, land, water, biodiversity and discarded devices beside greenhouse gases in its account of ICT's environmental footprint.

The current 2022 resolution already discusses climate effects, resource use, energy efficiency and e-waste. The new draft presses on the gap between discussing those things and measuring them the same way. It calls for science-based life-cycle assessment, covering the manufacture, use and end of equipment, with water footprint, toxicity and biodiversity alongside carbon. It also says data on the sector's emissions and energy use remain limited in most countries, leaving its net climate effect heavily estimated.

That matters when a digital project claims to save emissions elsewhere. The draft asks ITU to report those enabling effects against agreed methods and baselines that include direct and lifecycle emissions. A clever application cannot simply present the savings column while the equipment, electricity and cooling sit off the page.

AI gets a specific line. The proposal says expanding AI data centres substantially raises energy use and greenhouse-gas emissions, while AI can also help mitigation and adaptation. Its Bureau instructions address efficiency of equipment, networks and data centres; they also call for measurement of direct and lifecycle carbon and energy footprints and of e-waste.

The move from measurement to authority appears near the end. Member States, Sector Members and Associates are invited to bring environmental indicators, climate resilience and sustainability criteria into national telecom strategies, regulatory frameworks and procurement rules, using an ITU-harmonized national indicator method. A common measuring tape can eventually decide which project clears a public buyer's desk. That choice would be made under national rules, after the ITU conference considers the proposal.

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