The mobile industry trade body has unveiled plans that it claims will save up to 2.5 billion litres of diesel per annum and cut annual carbon emissions by up to 6.3 million tonnes.

How? Well, the GSMA is focussing on the developing world, where it hopes to have 118,000 base stations using renewable energy by 2012.

Up to now, so called 'off-grid' base stations have primarily been powered by generators running on diesel fuel, which as the GSMA points out is increasingly expensive and generates carbon emissions.

There are currently only 1,500 base stations globally powered by at least one form of renewable energy. We wonder how many of them are in the West. Not many, we reckon.

The GSMA's Green Power For Mobile programme is backed by 25 operators.

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