Green Communications: Principles, Concepts and Practice

Chapter 1Introduction

Konstantinos Samdanis¹, Peter Rost¹, Michela Meo², Christos Verikoukis³ and Andreas Maeder¹

¹NEC Europe Ltd, Heidelberg, Germany

²Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy

³Telecommunications Technological Centre of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain

1.1 Origins of Green Communications

Climate change and energy crisis are not just a vague future problems, as their effects are becoming apparent at a rapid pace. Greenhouse emissions, such as and methane, cause global warming with catastrophic consequences on planet and on the human society as documented in Ref. [1]. The Kyoto protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established in 1997 indicates that mainly the developed countries are responsible for the current levels of greenhouse gases, followed by a strong objective to take action against global warming. In the Conference of the Parties (COP) 17 climate change conference in Durban, 2011 scientists raised concerns that the measures taken so far are not sufficient to avoid global warming beyond (a limit established in the G8 meeting in L'Aquila in June 2009 to avoid unpredictable environmental damage) and more urgent action is needed. Besides environmental concerns, the energy crisis becomes apparent with claims stating that approximately ...