Talks between global environment NGO Greenpeace and telecom giant Bharti Airtel over disclosing its carbon emissions and phasing out diesel from telecom tower operations remained inconclusive on Friday .

Greenpeace has been protesting against the country''''s largest telecom operator for not disclosing the measures it has taken to lower its carbon emissions, including the shift towards renewable sources of energy to power its networks.," Greenpeace India Campaign Director Divya Raghunandan said in a statement.

Greenpeace alleged that Bharti has refused to commit to a timeline for disclosures.

When contacted, Cellular Operator Association of India (COAI) Director General Rajan S Mathews said, "We are working with international body GSMA to bring out a protocol on how to measure carbon emissions and steps that can be taken to reduce it at the industry level."

COAI has conveyed to Greenpeace that IT and telecom together contribute about two per cent of the total carbon emissions in the country, he added.
The NGO has called for Airtel to catalyse a low-carbon economic growth, by using its brand power to advocate strong policies that promote renewable energy.

Last month, Greenpeace estimated that the diesel consumed by telecom companies for providing power to telecom towers was causing the exchequer an annual loss of about Rs 2,600 crore because of the subsidy on the fuel.

Telecom regulator Trai''s recommendations in April also foster environment-friendly telecom policies wherein it has suggested measures to reduce dependency on the fossil fuel and a format to measure carbon footprint in the telecom network.

DoT is now studying these recommendations.

Bharti said it has started GreenTowers P7 initiative that aims at reducing diesel usage.

"Once completed, the initiative will reduce diesel consumption by 66 million litres per year with a significant carbon-dioxide reduction of around 1.5 lakhs metric tonnes per year," Bharti had said.

The meeting was attended by representatives from Bharti, Indus Towers (the telecom tower venture between Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular), Bharti Infratel (its tower subsidiary) and COAI.