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The telecommunications sector – damaging the environment or saving it? A flash analysis.

Telecommunications companies like to highlight their positive influence on the global climate; they ultimately make an essential contribution towards eliminating commutes and business trips by providing the infrastructure people need to work from home and participate in video conferencing. But how green is the sector really? Increasingly dynamic developments in digitalisation, particularly in visualisation and streaming, also lead to higher greenhouse gas emissions and, in individual cases, have already been identified as potential climate change accelerators.

Wolfgang Behler, Global head of the Industries und Services Department at KfW IPEX-Bank: “Expanding fibre optics connections and developing intelligent ‘green’ data centres are critical steps towards increasing the energy efficiency of digital infrastructure. We have been supporting telecommunications companies for decades in the expansion of their mobile infrastructure.”

Alexander Jacobs, Global Head of the Infrastructure Department at KfW IPEX-Bank adds: “The pandemic has acted as an additional driver in this dynamic market which already needed significant investment. KfW IPEX-Bank is an experienced and reliable financing partner for investments in digital infrastructure and in this role we want to help the telecommunications sector live up to its green reputation.”

The current Flash Analysis The telecommunications sector – damaging the environment or saving it?, a product of the Credit Analysis Department of KfW IPEX-Bank, examines these and other aspects relating to the topic.

Author: Paula Hollekamp

Published: February 2021

Digital Infrastructure

We finance telecom as well as core infrastructure projects in Europe and globally.

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