France continues to be at the forefront of regulatory efforts on sustainability, leveraging its expanded powers to assess environmental impacts across the internet value chain
Carbon emissions from telecoms operators have increased: Arcep has published the second edition of its annual inquiry into ‘Achieving digital sustainability’, releasing the results of metrics collected from France’s largest four operators. Overall, telcos’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions rose in 2021 having fallen for two consecutive years prior. The increase can be attributed to a “sizeable rise” (4%) in direct GHG emissions; however, the total remains below 2019 levels, which means that the pandemic’s positive effect on emissions has not been entirely offset by the resumption of business. Indirect emissions, generated principally by operators’ energy consumption, have been increasing since 2018 due to ongoing network deployments and rising data traffic. This trend continued through 2021, but slowed significantly as the pace of growth in networks’ energy consumption reduced by half. According to Arcep, energy consumption by copper networks is higher (around four times) than by fibre ones – something recognised by other organisations and a key motivation behind telcos’ infrastructure modernisation programmes.
Demand for refurbished smartphones is rising: Another major focus area for Arcep is devices, which account for the majority (79%) of the digital sector’s carbon footprint. Reducing the rate of replacement of hardware and increasing its lifespan is therefore one way to lower the impact. The regulator reports a considerable decrease in new smartphone sales in 2021 that was slightly outweighed by a rise in refurbished handset sales. For the first time, Arcep has also published figures on internet routers and set-top boxes (STBs), with most of those processed by operators in 2021 recycled. However, while there has been a strong uptick in the rate of refurbishment for both routers and STBs, they represent only 20% of the total number of these devices currently in service. This percentage has changed little since 2019 for routers but has been increasing steadily for STBs, suggesting that their lifespan is getting longer – although Arcep acknowledges that is impossible to verify.
Arcep is taking advantage of expanded data collection powers: France’s annual sustainability survey is intended to improve with every iteration, for example with additional indicator categories. Arcep’s data collection campaigns are therefore a crucial part of the process. The adoption of new legislation in late 2021 strengthened its responsibility for the “environmental regulation of the digital sector”, while broadening its data collection powers (from just telcos) to cover other market actors, including network vendors, device manufacturers and and data centre operators. This has given Arcep the ability to examine the entire internet value chain – something it has already set about doing. Arcep is also collaborating with domestic regulators such as ADEME and Arcom, and with international peers via BEREC, jointly leading (alongside the CTU) the organisation’s sustainability activities. While Arcep considers there is value in European regulators learning from each other in this space, the lack of a mandate on, and a harmonised approach to, data collection at the EU level is currently limiting the contribution and progress BEREC can make.
