Digital transformation and connectivity key to Canada’s climate goals: CTA

Digital transformation of Canadian businesses can play a fundamental role in Canada’s fight against climate change, but is a strategy often overlooked, according to a new report from Accenture, commissioned by the Canadian Telecommunications Association (CTA). Tuesday’s report, titled Canada’s next sustainability frontier: Powering digital transformation with connectivity, “says that while Canada’s current strategies for fighting climate change, which focus on renewables and clean tech solutions, are important, other approaches, such as the modernization of Canadian industrial operations using data and technology to become more efficient, are needed to achieve Canada’s sustainability goals,” explained CTA in an accompanying press release. As a signatory of the 2015 Paris Agreement, Canada is severely lagging behind on its progress towards its goals of reducing emissions by 40 to 45 per cent compared to 2005 levels by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. According to data from Environment Canada and UNICEF, which the report references, emissions have only decreased by nine per cent, and compared to the other rich countries, Canada has the worst rate of waste production, the second-worst rate of resource consumption and the third-worst rate of greenhouse gas emissions per capita. The report breaks down how this slow pace can be improved if Canada expands its climate approach beyond renewable energy and clean tech, encouraging investments in new devices and network infrastructure. Digital transformation in Canadian industries will improve productivity, efficiency, and sustainability, while reducing energy and fuel consumption. Accenture’s report expands on its 2020 paper, which focused on the efficiency of 5G networks. It predicted “that 5G will support a thousand-fold traffic increase in the next 10 years, but the full network’s energy will be half the current levels.” “Connectivity services, enabled by modern wireless and wireline networks, are an important foundation that make this transformation possible,” said Accenture’s global networks practice lead Jefferson Wang, in the release. “Specifically, modern wireless and wireline networks provide the exponential growth in bandwidth and speed, simultaneous connections, and reliability needed to power IoT, data and AI, and cloud across industry sectors.” Accenture focused on the potential use cases of new technologies in Canada’s oil and gas, mining, and agriculture sectors. Illustrating how connected devices and sensors, as well as technologies like digital twins, AI, and cloud computing, can be used by businesses to operate more efficiently and safely, and in turn produce less waste. Predictive maintenance of oil rig equipment through the use of sensors and drones, for example, can limit unnecessary downtime and energy consumption. While digital twin technology and AI can help optimize drilling parameters and reduce wasted fuel use by 20 per cent. Monitoring crops with sensors and drones is another example, and can reduce the agricultural sector’s use of water and fertilizer by 20 to 40 per cent. “Current government programs and incentives available to businesses have focused narrowly on clean technology investments and renewables. These funding sources often do not extend to the types of digital transformation discussed in this paper,” states Accenture in the report, “despite the potential for substantial sustainability benefits.” “Canada must expand its approach to addressing environmental challenges, and in doing so make it easier for industry verticals to become more sustainable." CTA said in its press release that achieving sustainable industry revolves around several other key enablers as well, including “a regulatory approach that maintains incentives for Canada’s communications service providers to continue to invest in the expansion and enhancement of their wireline and wireless networks.” – Reporting by Phalen Tynes-MacDonald at pcreed@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

Digital transformation and connectivity key to Canada’s climate goals: CTA

News | October 3, 2023

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Digital transformation and connectivity key to Canada’s climate goals: CTA

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