A4AI publishes new Sustainable Access report

The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) , a programme under the Web Foundation, has launched the Sustainable Access Report. The report explores ways that the remaining half of the world’s population would be connected to the internet in a meaningful and sustainable manner. Particularly, the report takes into consideration the environmental cost in the provision of access and how to limit carbon footprint and climate impact that comes with the delivery of internet infrastructure. The report’s findings can be summarised as follows:

  1. The tools and technologies used to deliver coverage have a direct bearing on the overall impact of new internet infrastructure.
  2. The availability of parallel infrastructure, the electric grid will feed into the determination of financial and environmental sustainability when it comes to the operation of newly built infrastructure.
  3. Policy makers can adjust the balance in evaluating the internet’s carbon footprint and the size of that footprint per user by removing social barriers to internet use, such as gender norms that discourage the usage of the internet by girls and women.