EU Taxonomy
The faster the transition to fibre can be made, the faster will be the reduction in energy consumption. It is inefficient to have two networks operating where one of them is an inefficient copper network and an accelerated shut down of copper networks can lower energy consumption significantly. A switch to FTTH networks will also reduce maintenance and ongoing truck-rolls, implying further energy savings and reduction of CO2 emissions. An enhanced data economy enabled by FTTH networks can also facilitate efficiency in other areas such as transportation.
The FTTH Council Europe pursues sustainability in its public policy objectives. Transparency efforts can indeed be the basis to create incentives to attract investments in the electronic communications sector to make ICT greener (‘green ICT’) and have it enable the greening of other sectors (‘ICT for green’). One important issue for the sector is that many finance companies have ESG targets for various funds, and unless an investment is able to be categorised as part of the ESG, a worthy and viable project might not be able to attract the finance it needs. For instance, if a fund says that 90% of project must contribute to ESG goals, then a FTTH project that cannot be labelled as contributing to ESG is competing for 10% of a fund rather than the whole fund. While FTTH/B is clearly good for the environment compared to other infrastructures, without a clear classification this may have no bearing on its ability to attract finance.
The FTTH Council Europe believes that there is a need for engagement with the industry to further improve the usability and potential scope of the EU Taxonomy for green investment in electronic communications networks ensuring it is based on robust and credible science-based metrics. To learn more on the role of fibre networks in the context of sustinable finance, download our recent white paper "Fibre Networks as Green Asset - The Role of Sustainable Finance".