In December 2019, the European Commission presented the European Green Deal with the ambition of making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, boosting the economy, improving people's health and quality of life, caring for nature, and leaving no one behind.

Digitalisation will be at the core of this ambitious program and fibre is key to align the digital and sustainability agendas. As the most sustainable telecommunication infrastructure technology, full-fibre is a prerequisite to achieving the European Green Deal and making the European Union’s economy more sustainable.

The need to work collectively towards a more sustainable society has become a strategic objective of policy makers and the vast majority of private organisations alike. With this context in mind, the sustainability Working Group of the FTTH Council Europe has been created with two key objectives:

  • Promote full fibre as the most sustainable access network technology and enabler of multiple applications which can contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of our activities. Remote working and learning being the most obvious examples.
  • Support all stakeholders of the Fibre to the Home value chain in their efforts to make their respective activities more carbon neutral.

Insights from the Committee

 

 

Fibre Networks as Green Assets - The Role of Sustainable Finance

Dec 17, 2024
Reports & Studies | Sustainability Committee |

The FTTH Council Europe is pleased to bring you this first-of-its-kind study by Cartesian on FTTH as a green asset.

Within the FTTH Council Europe, we are relentlessly working to fulfil our mission: to advance ubiquitous full fibre-based connectivity to the whole of Europe. The FTTH value chain is also fully committed to contributing to the achievement of the EU climate goals.

This study aims to demonstrate the positive environmental impact of FTTH networks throughout their lifecycle, from production to deployment and operation. FTTH networks underpin the “twin transitions” ensuring the highest connectivity performance as well as a high energy efficiency, reducing the risk of rebound effects that can arise from higher data consumption. Finally, the study demonstrates how access to sustainable finance could help sustain the investments needed to achieve the Digital Decade targets.

We want to ensure that there is wide awareness about the results of this study, which contributes to increasing investors’ confidence in the sustainability benefits of FTTH projects as well as informing policy makers on actions to ensure access to sustainable finance.

View all