“Decarbonizing industries with connectivity & 5G” MIT Technology Review Insights whitepaper evaluates how senior technology, business and renewable energy executives are leveraging cellular technology to achieve environmental sustainability as well as operational efficiency objectives.
Introduction
Energy, manufacturing, and transportation sectors are among the biggest carbon emitters globally. Overall, energy use is responsible for about two thirds of GHG emissions, including both the sectors’ own emissions and energy consumed for other sectors, according to the Exponential Roadmap. This is made up of 32 gigatons (Gt) of annual CO2 emissions, plus 3.3 Gt of CO2 equivalent emissions (CO2e) from other greenhouse gases. The manufacturing sector is responsible for 17 Gt CO2e annually, which represents 32% of the global total, and transport-related emissions total 8.6 Gt CO2e per year, which represents 16% of the global total. Decarbonization in these sectors would have a substantial impact in meeting the goals of the Paris agreement, keeping global average temperature 1.5°C above preindustrial levels.
This whitepaper, “Decarbonizing industries with connectivity & 5G,” argues that the capabilities enabled by broadband cellular connectivity primarily, though not exclusively, through 5G network infrastructure are a unique, powerful and immediate enabler of carbon reduction efforts, and have the potential to create a transformational acceleration of decarbonization efforts, as increasingly interconnected supply chains, transportation, and energy networks share data to increase efficiency and productivity, hence optimizing systems for lower carbon emissions.