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The global mobile industry has managed to reduce its operational carbon emissions by 8% between 2019 and 2023, despite a massive increase in data use around the world, official figures said.
The GSMA Mobile Net Zero report revealed that mobile data traffic has multiplied by the quarter during this period while mobile connections increased by 9%.
On the other hand, global emissions have increased by 4% during the same window – but the report clearly shows it: the pace of progress must double if the sector must align with net -zero targets by 2050.
Improvement of energy efficiency and renewable adoption
“Our results show that the mobile industry is not greenwashing or greenwishing, it’s a green game,” said Steven Moore, responsible for climate action at the GSMA.
“The emissions tend in the right direction, but the pace of progress must now double.”
Geographically, the momentum varies. Europe, North America and Latin America lead, having a reduction in emissions by 56%, 44%and 36%, respectively, since 2019. During this time, Asia and Africa are starting to show a stronger commitment.
There is a notable change in China. As the largest mobile market in the world with more than a billion 5G connections, China has seen its operational emissions drop by 4% in 2024.
Despite these earnings, the GSMA is prudent as to the coming road – noting that the 4.5% drop in emissions provided for 2024 is encouraging but remains below the annual reduction of 7.5% necessary until 2030 to stay on CAP for Net Zero.
Decarbonization efforts in industry are obvious, many operators taking deliberate measures to improve energy efficiency.
These include stopping obsolete inherited inheritance networks and moving away from diesel generators, and operators also turn to renewable sources, such as solar and battery storage.
An area requiring urgent attention is the emissions of scope 3, which arise from supply chains and manufacturing and represent more than two thirds of the footprint of the sector.
Another area of growing development is circularity. Consumers show an increasing interest in sustainability, with 90% of those questioned by the GSMA claiming that they appreciate the longevity and the depreshment of devices, and almost half have indicated that they would consider buying a renovated phone afterwards.
Since renovated devices produce 80 to 90% less emissions than news, this trend could play a role in reducing emissions, because the used telephone market, which develops quickly quickly, is expected to reach $ 150 billion by 2027.
Despite progress, the ability of the industry to maintain this trend depends on external support.
“To support this progress, we need wider support: better access to renewable energies, more certainty of policies and stronger collaboration through the ecosystem,” said Moore.
