In February of 2019, the GSMA board set what it called a “milestone ambition”: The goal to transform the mobile industry so that it would reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest. An energy crisis in Europe, and climate-driven natural disasters and inflationary pressures around the world, are contributing to new urgency around reducing both energy costs and carbon dioxide emissions related to mobile networks—even as operators ramp up their work to meet mid- and long-term sustainability goals such as the one set by GSMA.
