Huawei’s 2023 Sustainability Forum and its regional sessions concluded last week. Themed “Thriving Together with Tech: Realizing Sustainable Development,” the event involved five regional sessions in China, Italy, Ghana, Pakistan, and Brazil, where best sustainability practices from Huawei and its partners were demonstrated.
In Brazil, Huawei is working with local operator Veloso Net to deliver stable connectivity to over 30% of the unconnected population in the state of Amazonas. Huawei also announced plans to cooperate with the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN) to implement a Tech4Nature project, which will protect biodiversity while fostering the development of local communities.
At the main forum in Dongguan, China, Jeffrey Sachs, President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, and Professor at Columbia University, delivered a keynote speech in which he discussed how global challenges are becoming increasingly complex. “We live in a period in which the challenges are getting greater and the need for breakthrough technologies, such as those Huawei brings us, is ever more urgent.”
Sachs highlighted the vital role that digital technology has to play. “Technologies, at least potentially, can reach everybody in a society and can even reach the poorest people in the world, as long as they are near a base station, as long as they can get digital connectivity, and as long as they have a device.”
Attendees emphasized that digital technology would help improve the resilience of both nature and humanity in the face of risks and challenges and drive sustainability. Jeffrey Zhou, Huawei’s President of ICT Marketing, noted: “Together with our partners, we are using the power of digital technology to drive digital inclusion and enable an inclusive and sustainable digital world.”
In Yunnan, China, improved connectivity enabled by Huawei’s 5G solutions has increased the efficiency of coffee farming and the quality of the beans. With digital infrastructure in place, e-commerce and video streaming have boomed, elevating the local coffee industry and making local coffee a prized brand among consumers.
In Italy, Huawei’s TECH4ALL Nature Guardian project, in partnership with WWF Italy, has deployed cloud- and AI-based acoustic monitoring systems at 16 eco-farms and traditional farms. The project found that approximately 10% more species live within eco-farms than in traditional farms.
In Gokina, Pakistan, Huawei and its partners have brought connectivity to the local community, enabling telemedicine and distance education. Villagers in this remote village can now access quality medical services when they need them.
In Ghana, Huawei worked with partners to build the first floating hydro-solar hybrid plant in West Africa. The plant will fuel a cashew factory in the Bono Region and create employment for over 800 citizens, including women.
The First Lady of the Republic of Ghana, Her Excellency Rebecca Akufo-Addo, appreciated Huawei’s contribution to the country’s sustainable development.
She said: “The world is going green, and projects such as the hydro-solar hybrid plant show that Ghana is on the right path towards the realization of a sustainable and eco-friendly digital future.”
“What I am hoping for is that Huawei’s tremendous capacity in 5G, in appliances, in systems design, in content and platforms can be harnessed with other large-scale programs,” said Sachs. “We need to make clear to the world that we have the solutions, that we have the mechanisms to put them in place at scale.”
