Huawei held a “Tech & Sustainability: Everyone’s Included” forum, co-hosted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Representatives from Huawei, IUCN, the World Economic Forum, Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), and Singapore Institute of International Affairs participated to discuss the role of technology in driving sustainability and building a more inclusive, eco-friendly world.
At the forum, Huawei also released its 2020 Sustainability Report and announced its Seeds for the Future Program 2.0, through which Huawei plans to invest $150 million in digital talent development over the next five years.
This program is expected to benefit more than 3 million additional people. Huawei also released its Innovation: Blood, Sweat and Dreams documentary series, which pays tribute to technological innovators and conservationists.
“Digital skills and literacy are not just the foundation for the digital economy; they are also a basic human right defined by the United Nations,” said Huawei’s Chairman Liang Hua at the forum.
“We are announcing Huawei’s Seeds for the Future Program 2.0. As part of our commitment to continuously developing talent, we will invest $150 million in this program over the next five years and help college students and young people improve their digital skills. This program is expected to benefit more than 3 million additional people.”
Huawei is committed to helping develop digital talent in the countries where it operates. In 2008, Huawei began to roll out talent development programs, through scholarships, technology competitions, and digital skills training, and has invested more than $150 million in these programs.
The firm has since benefited more than 1.54 million people from over 150 countries.
Huawei’s senior vice president of Global Government Affairs, Afke Schaart, also spoke at the event about how digital technologies will play an integral role in promoting inclusiveness and equality, saying,
“From our 2020 Sustainability Report, you can see that Huawei had launched programs like HUAWEI4HER and TECH4HER to help women improve their ICT skills and promote gender equality across the industry.”
Climate change and environmental issues are becoming global challenges. Though carbon emissions declined over the past year due to the economic slowdown and worldwide lockdowns, emissions are rapidly rebounding as economies reopen.
Shifting to a circular economy and achieving sustainable development is now a common goal for all countries.
“Green and sustainable development has become a top priority for global economies,” said Liang.
“Huawei has been leveraging its extensive experience in power electronics and energy storage as well as technical expertise in 5G, cloud, and AI, to develop its digital power business and provide digital power solutions for different industries.”
He added that as of December 2020, Huawei’s digital power products and solutions have generated 325 billion kWh of electricity from renewable sources, and saved a total of 10 billion kWh of electricity. These efforts have resulted in a reduction of 160 million tons in CO2 emissions.
ICT technologies are important enablers of energy conservation and emissions reduction in other industries.
Big data will also play a key role in carbon emissions verification.
Paul Dickinson, executive chair of environmental charity CDP, pointed out that digital technologies make carbon footprints traceable and will guide industries in achieving their carbon emissions reduction targets.
