The mobile phone industry has taken another step towards the adoption of a global battery standard, with the ITU yesterday approving the new Universal Charging Solution (UCS).
The UCS standard is based on the Micro-USB interface developed by the GSMA, the ITU said, and will allow the same charger to be used for all future handsets.
Adapting the standard will be voluntary, but the initiative already has the co-operation of most major handset vendors.
The GSMA has predicted that the new standard will be three times more energy-efficient than a standard charger, and could reduce standby energy consumption by 50% - leading to a reduction of 13.6 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year.
The approval comes as the ITU prepares its submission for November's UN climate change talks in Barcelona. The body said it would stress the use of ICT as a major tool for reducing emissions.
The GSMA in February announced a partnership between mobile operators and manufacturers to develop a universal charger.
The initial members were Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG and Qualcomm, as well as operators Telstra, 3 Group, AT&T, KTF, mobilkom austria, Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor, T-Mobile and Vodafone.