Scenario-based analysis of the carbon mitigation potential of 6G-enabled 3D videoconferencing in 2030

Videoconferencing and teleworking have become indispensable for many public and private organizations since the appearance of COVID-19. However, the extent to which the pandemic may have a lasting effect on people’s daily life and work remains to be seen. Poor visual and acoustic quality of online meetings could reactivate old communication patterns in the long term. New technologies such as 6G and 3D holography, offering enhanced video quality and online experience, could further drive virtualization in communication. This article investigates the CO(2) mitigation potential resulting from the partial replacement of business travel by 6G-enabled 3D videoconferencing in Germany in 2030. The carbon footprint calculation combined with scenario analysis has shown significant results when direct and indirect energy effects are considered. In the different scenarios investigated, a virtual conference would cause between 0.2% and 0.9% of the emissions of a mean-distance conference trip taken by a German business traveler. Considering the mitigation potential of all German conference travel in 2030, emissions could be decreased by 2.1 MtCO(2)eq (8.9%) and 20.5 MtCO(2)eq (88.4%), respectively, compared to 2019 under conservative and optimistic assumptions. In terms of current national total emissions, increasing virtualization of conferences could contribute between 0.3% and 2.8% to the German mitigation efforts.