Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

ICT Industry Agrees Landmark Science-Based Pathway to Reach Net Zero Emissions

27/02/2020

ITU, GeSI, GSMA & SBTi Set Science-Based Pathway In Line With Paris Agreement

London: The ICT industry is today taking an unprecedented step forward in tackling climate change with the release of the first-ever science-based pathway to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions across the telecoms sector. This supports the GSMA's commitment to helping the mobile industry achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The new Science-Based Target (SBT) is the result of a collaboration between the ITU, GeSI, the GSMA, and SBTi to develop a sector-specific decarbonisation pathway that allows ICT companies to set targets in line with the latest climate science. It includes emissions reductions trajectories for mobile, fixed and data centre operators to meet the ambitious Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 c, designed to substantially reduce the risks and effects of climate change.

Twenty nine operator groups representing 30 per cent of global mobile connections are already committed to SBTs. These include America Movil, AT&T, BT, Bharti Airtel, Deutsche Telekom, Elisa, Far Eastone, KPN, Magyar Telekom, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, Proximus, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Safaricom, Singtel, SK Telecom, STC, Swisscom, T Mobile USA, Taiwan Mobile, TDC, Tele2, Telef nica, Telekom Austria, Telenor, Telia, Telstra, Verizon, and Vodafone.

Many more will now be able to set targets by applying the trajectory recommendations released today.

Today's landmark agreement underlines how the ICT sector is taking urgent and unprecedented action in response to the climate emergency, said Mats Granryd, Director General, GSMA. The mobile industry is one of the first major sectors in the world to voluntarily set an SBT for emissions reductions. Our sector will form the backbone to the future global economy and has a unique role to play in reaching a Net Zero economy. A decarbonised world will be a digital world, so we must show leadership and take responsibility for driving positive climate action.

The GSMA is also launching a Climate Toolkit for operators today which includes company guidance for setting science-based targets. Further information is available at: https://www.gsma.com/betterfuture/climate-action-toolkit

Renewable energy to drive emissions reductions

The SBT sets emissions trajectory reductions over the decade (2020-2030) for each ICT sub- sector. For example, mobile network operators adopting the SBT are required to reduce emissions by at least 45 per cent over this period. Companies are required to set one target for their combined Scope 1 and 2 emissions, with additional guidance provided for managing Scope 3 emissions[1].

The switch to renewable and low-carbon electricity is expected to account for the bulk of reductions over this period, alongside efforts by operators to become more energy efficient. Access to renewable energy, which can vary widely depending on an operator's geographic location is, therefore, a key factor determining an operator's ability to meet the SBT.

The ICT sector pathway SBT was approved by the Science-Based Target Initiative (SBTi) this month following a consultation period. Full details are provided in the official ITU standard: GHG emissions trajectories for the ICT sector compatible with the UNFCCC Paris Agreement (Ref: Recommendation ITU L.1470).

Mobile industry demonstrating leadership on climate action

Today's announcement forms part of the GSMA's climate action roadmap for the mobile industry, which has already seen operators disclose their climate impacts, energy, and emissions via the internationally recognised CDP global disclosure system.[2]

The GSMA is working with participating operators and partnering with the international community, climate experts and third-party organisations to advance industry progress, establish best practices, and support disclosure and target setting. The work forms part of the industry's journey to support the delivery of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG #13 on Climate Action.

The industry is also committed to advancing mobile technology innovations in areas such as big data and IoT that can enable energy efficient and environmental solutions across multiple sectors, including transport, manufacturing, agriculture, building, and energy. A recent report produced by the GSMA and the Carbon Trust calculated that the use of mobile technology enabled a global reduction in emissions of around 2,135 million tonnes CO2e in 2018[3]. These emissions savings were almost ten times greater than the global carbon footprint of the mobile industry itself.

-ENDS-

About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting more than 750 operators with over 350 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces the industry-leading MWC events held annually in Barcelona, Los Angeles and Shanghai, as well as the Mobile 360 Series of regional conferences.

For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com. Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA

Media Contacts:

For the GSMA:

GSMA Press Office

pressoffice@gsma.com

[1] https://www.epa.gov/greeningepa/greenhouse-gases-epa

[2] https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/press-release/worlds-leading-mobile-operators-to-disclose-climate-impacts-as-part-of-new-gsma-led-climate-action-roadmap/

[3] https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/press-release/mobile-technologies-enabling-huge-carbon-reductions-in-response-to-climate-emergency/

Like what you read? Share.
LINK: https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/press-release/ict-industry-agrees-landma...
See more stories from gsma

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

17/07/2026

Foundry Releases SmartRoto for Nuke

Foundry Releases SmartRoto for Nuke Brie Clayton July 17, 2026 0 Comments Spline-based AI powered plugin accelerates time-consuming rotoscoping, helping...

17/07/2026

A Short Documentary About a Giant Pencil Edited with DaVinci Resolve Studio

A Short Documentary About a Giant Pencil Edited with DaVinci Resolve Studio Brie Clayton July 17, 2026 0 Comments SBIFF jury award winner finished fro...

17/07/2026

Wheatstone to Feature Virtual Mixing Platform at IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/07/2026

Trump Threatens Networks Over Speech Coverage

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/07/2026

Lightware Sustainability Report Details Product Efficienc...

Lightware has published its second voluntary Sustainability Report, showing how energy efficiency, product longevity and responsible material use are increasing...

17/07/2026

Foundry Unlocks Professional-Grade AI for VFX with Gripta...

Creative software developer Foundry today announced Griptape Enterprise, a new tier of the Griptape AI workflow orchestration platform, extended to meet the str...

17/07/2026

Foundry Releases SmartRoto for Nuke

Creative software developer Foundry today announced the availability of SmartRoto, a new AI-powered plugin upgrade for Nuke, NukeX, Nuke Studio, and Nuke Indie ...

17/07/2026

The Final Release of Blackmagic Fairlight Live is Now Available!

The Final Release of Blackmagic Fairlight Live is Now Available! Brie Clayton July 16, 2026 0 Comments Fairlight Live is a new audio mixer designed fo...

17/07/2026

Leveraging All of Entertainment's IP

Leveraging All of Entertainment's IP Andy Marken July 16, 2026 0 Comments Nobody ever wins the games. Period. There are survivors. There\s no win...

17/07/2026

RT Radio 1 continues its summer of stories, music, sport and conversation

New and returning series, live festival broadcasts, powerful documentaries and major sporting moments headline RT Radio 1's summer schedule RT Radio 1 is...

17/07/2026

NVIDIA Vera Rubin Maximizes Intelligence per Dollar for Post-Training Workloads - a Key Metric for Agentic AI

Think of a professional athlete. What separates elite performers is what happens...

17/07/2026

Dith, Jacqui and Louise bring hurling fans together ahead of the All-Ireland Finals

Up For The Match - Live From Croke Park this Saturday at 8pm on RT One and RT ...

17/07/2026

DiscoverIreland.ie announced as official show sponsor of The Traitors Ireland series 2

RT Commercial has today announced DiscoverIreland.ie, as sponsor of The Traitor...

16/07/2026

Business Innovation Synergizer: Grants of up to 30,000 for media organisations

Media organisations with tested plans for new products, services or revenue models can now apply for grants of up to 30,000 through the Business Innovation Syn...

16/07/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Kaden Sherman, Albany State University

This recent graduate and Georgia native has turned an early fascination with live production into a growing passion for camera work In the live-sports-video in...

16/07/2026

TNDV Marks First Year of Aspiration 35 Cinematic Production Truck

TNDV is marking the first anniversary of Aspiration 35, a mobile production truck built around ARRI Alexa 35 Live camera systems. Over its first year, the truck...

16/07/2026

ATSC Releases First Major Revision to A/85 Audio Loudness Recommended Practice Since 2013

ATSC has completed a major revision to its A/85 Recommended Practice: Techniques...

16/07/2026

FloSports Named Exclusive Global Media Partner for 2026 CrossFit Games

FloSports has announced an exclusive global media partnership with CrossFit for the 2026 CrossFit Games, presented by Air National Guard, beginning July 21 in S...

16/07/2026

Sennheiser Releases Spectera Firmware 1.4 and Command Button

Sennheiser has released firmware version 1.4 for its Spectera wireless system and announced the Spectera Command Button (Cat. No. 701014). The update adds comma...

16/07/2026

ESPN and Southwestern Athletic Conference Announce Multi-Year Media Rights Agreement Through 2030-31

ESPN and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) have announced a multi-year...

16/07/2026

Audio-Technica Releases 20 Series Control Application for Elgato Stream Deck

Audio-Technica has announced the 20 Series Control Application, a Stream Deck plug-in for compatible Audio-Technica USB microphones. The application is compatib...

16/07/2026

SSL Live L550 Plus Consoles Power Audio Production for The Voice France Season 15

The fifteenth season of The Voice - La plus belle voix on TF1 used four Solid St...

16/07/2026

Gray Media and Atlanta Hawks Announce Georgia-Wide Broadcast Partnership for 2026-27 NBA Season

Gray Media and the Atlanta Hawks have announced a broadcast partnership that wil...

16/07/2026

SVG Sit-Down: Quarterback Showrunner Joe Zucco on Cinematography, Building Trust, Carrying On the NFL Films Legacy

Season 3 of Netflix's docuseries, which dropped this week, follows Jayden Da...

16/07/2026

Texas Rangers Switch Direct-to-Consumer Streaming Partner to BZZR

The Texas Rangers and Rangers Sports Network presented by Progressive (RSN) have announced BZZR as the new direct-to-consumer distributor for Rangers game broad...

16/07/2026

FIFA World Cup 2026: BBC Sport on Moving Across the Pond to Bring the Atmosphere of the Final Matches to Fans

With England's FIFA World Cup 2026 team getting ready to fly home after losi...

16/07/2026

With 36 Unilateral Cameras, NBC Sports Shapes 154th Open Championship Coverage for U.S. Viewers

In a return to Royal Birkdale, the team enjoys partnering with ETP and Gravity M...

16/07/2026

Altitude Sports & Entertainment's Tim De Lay on New SkyCam Digital Feed, Upgraded Studio Space

Along with a new studio at Ball Arena, the Colorado-based RSN is working with XR...

16/07/2026

FIFA World Cup 2026: Inside ORF's Austria-Based Production to Bring All the Emotions of the Tournament to Fans

Austria was back at the World Cup for the first time in 28 years, and the team d...

16/07/2026

Inside Gravity Media's Effort To Power the 154th Open Championship Production

With 42 RF cameras and high-power radio mics deployed, the spectrum environment ...

16/07/2026

Baby Audio release SubCulture

A new benchmark in bass enhancement Described as a new benchmark in bass enhancement , Baby Audio's latest release has been designed to augment the lo...

16/07/2026

Other Worlds Evolved from Zero G

Popular library rebuilt in new Orbita Engine Other Worlds Evolved is the latest of Zero G's sample libraries to be treated to a ground-up rebuild using ...

16/07/2026

Native Instruments announce Super*Saw

Created in collaboration with A. G. Cook The newest addition to Native Instruments' software collection introduces a new synth created by A. G. Cook, a ...

16/07/2026

NITV and SBS bring Australians to the heart of Garma

NITV and SBS bring Australians to the heart of Garma 16 July, 2026 Media releases The Garma Festival returns from 31 July-3 August, with NITV and SBS deliv...

16/07/2026

Rohde & Schwarz supplies conformance test systems to Marquistech for India's first GCF RTO and PTCRB ATL lab

Rohde & Schwarz supplies conformance test systems to Marquistech for India's...

16/07/2026

The Gauge: Poland | June 2026

June brought stabilization to the television market. Poles spent an average of 3 hours and 36 minutes a day in front of their TV screens exactly the same as i...

16/07/2026

New studio monitoring leads Glensound's 60th year line-up...

Glensound returns to IBC with a major new addition to its intelligent loudspeaker range, the Greater Divine Supernal studio monitor, alongside recent developmen...

16/07/2026

Complete spectrum of innovation from British exhibitors a...

33 leading exhibitors are taking part in the GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland Pavilions and linked locations across IBC2026 (Amsterdam RAI, 11 14 September)...

16/07/2026

Hitomi Broadcast to showcase HDR colour verification and...

Hitomi Broadcast will introduce Spectra, a new HDR colour verification solution measured in picture, not using VPID, at IBC2026 (Hall 10, Stand A40). Expanding ...

16/07/2026

SMPTE Kicks Off 110th Anniversary Campaign

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/07/2026

Cox Media Group Taps Waymark for AI Ad Creation Tools

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/07/2026

Parks: Cable Broadband Sub Losses Slow Down

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/07/2026

CatchLight, Sony Launch Initiative to Help Local Newsrooms

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/07/2026

XR Launches XR ONE Ad Ops Platform

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/07/2026

Zixi and Comcast Technology Solutions Partner to Provide...

Zixi, a leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) today announced a strategic new integration to deliver ...

16/07/2026

Blackmagic Design Cameras Capture Immersive Flight for New Cirrus App

Blackmagic Design Cameras Capture Immersive Flight for New Cirrus App Brie Clayton July 15, 2026 0 Comments Leader in Personal Aviation taps URSA Cin...