Executive Summary of the ITU-T Study Group 5 Meeting “Environment, Climate Change and Circular Economy” (Sophia Antipolis, 13-22 November 2017)

Statistics

• Participants: 100
• Contributions: 106

• TDs (not counting the revisions): 196
• Incoming/ Outgoing liaison statements: 20 incoming liaison statements / 21 outgoing liaison statements TD 268-R4 (also see LS database) 

Main discussions and results

• Consented Recommendations: 19 at this meeting, (8 revised Recommendations)
• Recommendations Decided/Determined/Approved: none at this meeting
• Recommendations agreed for Deletion: none at this meeting
• Other texts agreed: 5 Supplements at this meeting
• New work items: 7 at this meeting

Major accomplishments

Approval of the report of the last SG5 meeting

The report of the last ITU-T SG5 meeting held in Geneva from 15 to 24 May 2017 was approved as contained in Report 1.​

Approved Recommendations by ITU-T SG5 (according to A.8 §5) 

Recommendations Consented by SG 5 for Last Call (AAP - Recommendation A.8)

Revised Recommendations

 
New Recommendations

Agreed informative texts

Agreed questionnaire

New work items

ITU-T SG5 Vision (2017-2020) – Setting Environmental Requirements for 5G/IMT-2020

The SG5 Vision on Setting the Environmental Requirements for 5G/IMT-2020 project was launched in May 2017. Several contributions were received on this topic and as a result of the discussions that took place, the following Supplements were agreed:

Additionally, a new work item on K.Supp-5G_EMF_Compliance "Electromagnetic field (EMF) compliance assessments for 5G wireless networks" was approved during this meeting (TD366 and TD328-R1 (A.1)).

Ongoing work continues on the development of a series of ITU-T Recommendations including on "Energy efficiency Metrics and measurement methodology for 5G solutions" and "Sustainable power feeding solutions for 5G network".

Main decisions taken by WTDC-17 with impact on ITU-T SG5

• ITU-T SG5 Chairman gave a brief overview of the results of the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) which took place in Buenos Aires from 9 to 20 October 2017. It was noted that ITU-D Study Group 2 had reviewed the title of its Question 6 and now it is called "ICTs and the environment". Additionally, during WTDC, Resolution 62 on "Assessment and measurement of human exposure to electromagnetic fields" and Resolution 66 "Information and communication technology and climate change" were revised.
• The WTDC-Provisional Final Report is available here.

Action plans for implementation of WTSA-16 Resolution 72 and 73 (Rev.Hammamet, 2016) and Resolution 79 (Dubai, 2012) (human exposure to EMF, environment and climate change, and e-waste)

TD254 contains a proposed "Action Plan" for the implementation of WTSA-16 Resolutions 72 and 73 (Rev. Hammamet, 2016) and Resolution 79 (Dubai, 2012) (human exposure to EMF, environment and climate change, and e-waste). ITU-T SG5 members have been requested to provide inputs in order to review it at the next ITU-T SG5 meeting.

List of stale work items

TSB provided information on the list of stale work items as contained in TD260-R1. The Rapporteurs of the concerned Questions were encouraged to discuss these work items during their sessions and take appropriate action.

During this meeting, SG5 stale work items were considered and the result of discussions and actions undertaken is contained in TD260-R3.

Collaboration matters          

• Work on the development of four joint work items with ETSI EE2 and three work items with ETSI EEPS continues.
• A presentation on activities carried out in ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC39 can be found in TD361-Rev.1.
• A presentation on activities carried out in IEC TC111 can be found in TD360-Rev.1.
• A presentation on activities carried out in IEEE ICES can be found in TD345-Rev.1.
• A presentation on activities carried out in IEC TC106 can be found in TD344-Rev.1.

Information Sharing

• TD296 and TD257 - Communiqué of the TSB Director CTO Meeting;
• TD258 - Bridging the standardization gap and Regional Groups; and
• TD252 - ITU Journal: ICT Discoveries - call for papers on "The impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on communication networks and services".

United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) initiative

• TSB provided an overview of the main achievements of the U4SSC which launched four new publications on: "Connecting cities and communities with the SDGs", "Enhancing innovation and participation in smart sustainable cities", "Implementing SDG11 by connecting sustainability policies and urban planning practices through ICTs" and "Collection Methodology for Key Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable Cities". More information is contained in TD294.
• It was noted that within U4SSC, cities have been invited to participate in the Project on "Implementation of Key Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable Cities". More information is contained in TD295.

ITU-T SG5 Regional Groups

•  It was agreed to designate Mr. Ahmed Mahamado from the Republic Islamic of Mauritania as Vice-chairman of SG5RG-ARB.
• C96 was submitted by Egypt. This Contribution contained a short report on the participation of SG5 Chairman and SG5RG-ARB Vice-chairman in the SG20RG-ARB meeting held on 10 August 2017 in Cairo, Egypt. It also contained a presentation on ITU-T SG5 activities and with focus on the Arab Region which was delivered by the SG5RG-ARB Vice chairman. Additionally, this Contribution included a tentative list of potential Arab experts that might be interested in participating in future SG5RG-ARB meetings.

• It was agreed to designate Dr. Byung Chan Kim from ETRI, Korea, as Vice-chairman of SG5RG‑AP.

Meeting reports

•  The draft Report of Working Party 1/5 can be found in TD290-R3.
•  The draft Report of Working Party 2/5 can be found in TD291-R3.

Question 8/5 - Guides and terminology on environment and climate change

During this meeting, Q8/5 achieved the following key outcomes:

Most of the Q8/5 meeting was taken up with practical demonstrations of how the IEC and IEEE macro enabled Word templates work and how to modify a template to be more compliant with the ITU-T template. An LS/o was generated to request TSB to consider creating an ITU-T macro enabled template (TD333-R2).

The meeting report of Question 8/5 can be found in TD288-R1.

Working Party 1/5 - EMC, lightning protection, EMF

Working Party 1 made significant progress and achieved the following key outcomes:

Question 1/5 - Protection of information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure from electromagnetic surges.

The main results of this meeting are as follows:

Seven Contributions relevant to Q1/5 were submitted to the meeting, and six of them were discussed at the Q1/5 meeting, namely: C113 on "Proposal for an alternative earthing network for electronic equipment cabinet (EEC) in ITU-T K.35" (from Huawei), C114 on "Proposal for new subclauses to be inserted on ITU-T K.40" (from Huawei), C115 on "Proposal to delete work item K.lp from the work program" (from Huawei), C131 on "The third draft of K.psp "Protection of small-size telecommunication installations with poor earthing conditions" (from China Unicom), and C176 on "Research of limits on ADSL disturbances created by A.C. electrified traction systems for K.int (Limits of interference on telecommunication transmissions on copper other than speech)" and C177 on "First draft of Recommendation ITU-T K.int (Limits of interferences on telecommunication transmissions on copper other than speech)"  (both from Orange and SNCF). Contribution C103-R1 on "Comments and proposals on K.vss" (from NTT) was not discussed during this meeting.

Additionally, TD335 on "The revision of Recommendation ITU-T K.35 "Bonding configurations and earthing at remote electronic sites"", TD336 on "The revision of Recommendation ITU-T K.40 "Protection against LEMP in telecommunications centres"", and TD343 on "Proposal to change status of K.lp" were issued during the meeting.

Two revised Recommendations, ITU-T K.35 on "Bonding configurations and earthing at remote electronic sites" and ITU-T K.40 on "Protection against LEMP in telecommunications centres", were submitted for consent at this meeting.

The meeting report of Q1/5 is contained in TD281-R2.

Question 2/5 - Equipment resistibility and protective components

Q2/5 meeting discussed 46 documents in 14 topic areas. Two new Draft Recommendations were submitted for consent, one Supplement on Resistibility analysis of 5G systems was submitted for agreement and one revised Recommendation was proposed for consent. One new Supplement justification was approved, one LS/i from JCA-IMT2020 was answered and one LS/o to the IEEE on Ethernet port isolation was drafted. Q2/5 participants pointed out that SharePoint is not very convenient to use and does not have the functionalities of a full-fledged discussion forum system that is required for Q2/5 work. In this regard, a liaison statement was prepared and TSB was requested to propose a solution.

The meeting report of Q2/5 is contained in TD282-R1.

Question 3/5 - Human exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from information and communication technologies (ICTs)

Q3/5 meeting discussed 31 input documents. Five revised Recommendations were submitted for consent and one new Supplement was submitted for agreement. The main outcome of this meeting is the development and agreement on new Supplement: ITU-T K.Supp-5G_EMF_Impact on "5G technology and human exposure to RF EMF". This Supplement presents possible impacts of the new technical solutions that will be used in 5G/IMT-2020 system on EMF. This information includes heterogeneity of IMT-2020, bigger use of small base station, the use of higher frequencies, smaller distances to the user, MIMO and smart antennas that allow to limit exposure to the time and location of the user and the drammatic increase of IoT (M2M) devices with very small emitted EMF.

Additionally, Q3/5 started work on a new Supplement on K.Supp-5G_EMF_Compliance "Electromagnetic field (EMF) compliance assessments for 5G wireless networks".

Five Recommendations were revised, namely: ITU-T K.52 "Guidance on complying with limits for human exposure to electromagnetic fields", ITU-T K.61 "Guidance on measurement and numerical prediction of electromagnetic fields for compliance with human exposure limits for telecommunication installation", ITU-T K.70 "Mitigation techniques to limit human exposure to EMF's in the vicinity of radiocommunication stations", ITU-T K.91 "Guidance for assessment, evaluation and monitoring of the human exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields" and ITU-T K.100 "Measurement of radio frequency electromagnetic fields to determine compliance with human exposure limits when a  base station is put into service".  These Recommendations were revised according to the development of the methodologies and new standards developed. A new version of the software EMF-estimator (Appendix I to ITU-T K.70) and a new mobile App "EMF exposure" (new Appendix VI to K.91) has been agreed. These new tools will support the user of ITU‑T Recommendations in RF EMF exposure assessment.

The meeting report of Q3/5 which is contained in TD283-R3 was approved at the closing plenary of WP1/5.

Question 4/5 - Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) issues arising in the telecommunication environment

All documents related to Question 4/5 were discussed during five meeting sessions. The Contributions received by Q4/5 and the drafts of ITU-T K.bwenv on "Electromagnetic (EM) environment of body worn equipment in the 2.4 GHz and 13.56MHz  industrial, scientific and medical band", ITU-T K.IPE on "Electromagnetic compatibility requirements for Information Perception Equipment", K.light on "EMC requirements of disturbances from lighting equipment located in the telecommunication equipment room", ITU-T K.radio_emc on "Electromagnetic Compatibility  requirements for radio telecommunication equipment - Product family Recommendation", ITU-T K.wire-line_emc on "Electromagnetic compatibility requirements for wire-line telecommunication network equipment- Product family Recommendation", ITU-T KSTR.emc-5G on "Analysis of EMC aspects and definition of requirements for 5G mobile systems" were discussed and progress was made.

The following drafts Recommendation were approved in Q4/5 and submitted to ITU-T SG5 for consent:

The Q4/5 work programme was revised and updated. The meeting report of Q4/5 which is contained in TD284-R2 was approved at the closing plenary of WP1/5.

Working Party 2/5 - Environment, Energy Efficiency and the Circular Economy

Working Party 2 made significant progress and achieved the following key outcomes:

Question 6/5 - Achieving energy efficiency and smart energy

Q6/5 reviewed18 Contributions and the documents under study were improved based on the Contributions received. All incoming liaison statements were discussed and outgoing liaison statements were prepared.

Draft Recommendation ITU-T L.NET Infra assessment "Total network infrastructure Energy efficiency metrics" was submitted for consent along with a Supplement ITU-T Supp. MM_5G "Study on methods and metrics to evaluate energy efficiency for future 5G systems" which was submitted for agreement.

A new Work Item on Draft Recommendation L.proc_DC "Procurement Criteria for Sustainable Data Centres" was created.

A series of collocated meetings took place between Q6/5 and ETSI EE2. Work on four joint work items with ETSI EE2 and three work items with ETSI EEPS continue.

The meeting report of Q6/5 which is contained in TD286-R3 was approved at the closing plenary of WP2/5.

Question 7/5 - Circular economy including e-waste

Q7/5 experts met during the first week of the ITU-T SG5 meeting in Sophia Antipolis. During the meeting 11 Contributions were discussed and presented, in addition to a number of TDs. All Contributions were presented and reviewed. They mainly addressed four work items of Q7/5 which are: L.CE on "Circular Economy: Guideline to migrate to circular ICT network infrastructure"; L.EW 2020 on "Connect 2020 agenda E-Waste reduction"; L. 1000Rev on "Universal power adapter and charger solution for mobile terminals and other hand-held ICT devices";  and the Supplement on Extended Producer Responsibility, in addition to a new baseline document for Work item L.BP contained in TD389.

During the meeting, experts agreed to transform the Supplement on Extended Producer Responsibility into an ITU-T Recommendation L.EPR to be consented during this meeting. L.EW 2020 was updated and reviewed. Concerning the work item L.EW2020, and upon revision of the TD300-R2, more work is expected on L.EW Connect 2020. A new work item on L.RE on "Guidelines and Accreditation for e- Waste Recyclers" was submitted for agreement of WP2/5 plenary. The Question also received one liaison statement from IEC and the reply can be found in TD357. Q7/5 work programme was reviewed.

NOTE: After Q7/5 meeting concluded and upon advice of WP2/5 Chairman, it was agreed the following:

• Work will continue on the work item named L.CE Circular Economy: Guideline to migrate to circular ICT network infrastructure as it is expected that it would pave the way to a series of ITU-T Recommendations on this important topic;
• Taking into consideration the Contributions received, a new work item on L.CE_ICT Circular Economy: Guide for Operators and Suppliers on approaches to migrate towards circular ICT good and networks was developed and was submitted for consideration of WP2/5 plenary. The A.1 is contained in TD380-R2; and
• A draft Recommendation on L.CE_ICT Circular Economy: Guide for Operators and Suppliers on approaches to migrate towards circular ICT good and networks has been prepared and is contained in TD326-R4. Draft Recommendation L.CE_ICT was submitted for consent during the WP2/5 plenary.   

The meeting report of Q7/5 which is contained in TD287-R3 was approved at the closing plenary of WP2/5.

Question 9/5 - Climate change and assessment of information and communication technology (ICT) in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Q9/5 reviewed 14 Contributions and 2 liaison statements. It was suggested to appoint as a new Associate Rapporteur from China, Mr. Yang Lu (CAICT). Progress was made on both Draft Recommendations L.MAE on "Methodologies for the assessment of the environmental impact of the ICT sector" and L.MAAP "Methodology for assessing the aggregated positive sector-level impacts of ICT in other sectors" for which initial drafts have been produced. Moreover, Draft Recommendations ITU-T L.ICTandFA on "Use of ICT in the adaptation of the Fisheries Sector to the Effects of Climate Change" and ITU-T L.CCRisk on "Framework of climate change risk assessment for telecommunication and electrical facilities" have been finalised and were submitted for consent. Two Contributions from AICTO (Arab Information and Communication Technology Organization) were discussed and it was agreed to explore further collaboration with this organisation. It was also agreed to invite SBT-I (Science Based Targets Initiative) to join the discussions on Draft Recommendations ITU-T L.MAAP and ITU-T L.MAE.

The meeting report of Q9/5 which is contained in TD289-R2 was approved at the closing plenary of WP2/5.

Rapporteur group meetings (including e-meetings)

Connect 2020 Agenda

Work on the Connect 2020 Agenda is currently being carried out within Q7/5 on "Circular economy including e-waste" and Q9/5 on "Climate change and assessment of information and communication technology (ICT) in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)". Progress was made during this meeting and more results will be presented during the WP2/5 meeting that will be held from 5 to 9 March 2018 in Geneva.

Workshops, Trainings and Forums of interest to ITU-T SG5

ITU-ETSI workshop on "Towards Setting Environmental Requirements for 5G"

ITU and ETSI organized a joint workshop "Towards Setting Environmental Requirements for 5G", that took place on 23 November 2017, in ETSI, Sophia Antipolis, France.

The one-day workshop provided a platform for discussion amongst all relevant parties including policy makers, standardization bodies, vendors, operators and researchers on environmental matters related to 5G. Furthermore, this event aimed to foster the collaboration between ITU-T Study Group 5 "Environment, climate change and circular economy" and ETSI TC EE "Environmental Engineering" on the topic.  

The workshop provided the audience with an up-to-date analysis of environmental requirements related to 5G and identified possible future activities in this field. 

The following were the main topics that were covered:

• Analysis and assessment of energy efficiency;
• Resource efficiency to achieve the Circular Economy;
• Powering techniques;
• Protection against environmental phenomena (e. g. lightning) and electromagnetic compatibility; and
• Human exposure to electromagnetic fields.

The draft programme, presentations and highlights of the workshop are available here.

Forthcoming events

Workshop on "5G, EMF & Health"

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is organizing a workshop on 5G, EMF and Health at the Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw, Poland on 5 December 2017, kindly hosted by the Ministry of Digital Affairs of Poland. This workshop will provide an overview of EMF, 5G and health issues to policy makers and other stakeholders with a special focus on Poland and will identify a few actions for consideration of ITU-T Study Group 5: Environment, Climate Change and Circular Economy.

More information on the Workshop is available here.

Dates of next ITU-T SG5 meeting, WP1/5 and WP2/5 Meetings