During Climate Action Week and the Climate Summit in New York, GenCell Energy salutes the mobile telecom industry for its concerted efforts to work towards resolving the global climate emergency. The publication of the 2019 edition of the GSMA’s Mobile Industry Impact Report shows the increased contribution by the mobile industry against all 17 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) over the past year and urges that operators accelerate their efforts to maximize their impact ahead of the 2030 deadline.
The 2019 study highlights the mobile industry’s efforts to deliver on SDG 13 Climate Action goals by addressing environmental and climate change challenges. While many mobile operators have been working on climate action for some time, the GSMA brings the industry together to develop a collective approach by, creating a long-term climate action roadmap. Mobile operators are playing an important role in connecting digital solutions that decrease energy consumption, travel and transport and reduce carbon and other GHG emissions. By adopting hydrogen fuel cells to provide backup and off-grid energy, mobile operators are reducing their dependence on pollutant diesel fuels.
Concurrently the GSMA has announced that the world’s leading mobile operators have agreed to participate in a key industry initiative around climate impact disclosures and emissions target setting. This major new initiative to develop a mobile industry climate action roadmap in line with the Paris Agreement has already recruited over 50 mobile operators to disclose their climate impacts, energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions via the internationally recognized CDP global disclosure system, many disclosing for the first time. The disclosures help operators measure and understand their environmental impact and better incorporate sustainability in every aspect of their operations. The first stage in the GSMA climate action roadmap, the disclosures will be followed by further steps towards decarbonization in alignment with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) that will provide a transparent and effective framework for meeting the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°c by 2050.
Mobile operators are increasing efforts to minimize climate impact in their networks by improving energy efficiency and sourcing renewable energy as well as by working with stakeholders to decrease value chain emissions. With climate change bringing more frequent severe weather incidents that cause grid outages, operators are investing in adapting mobile networks to become more resilient in order to ensure connectivity, access to information and coordination of assistance through emergencies and disasters.
GenCell is proud to be a part of the mobile industry’s efforts to help mitigate the effects of climate change by enabling transition to reliable renewable energy sources, displacing pollutant generators in poor grid networks and strengthening resilience with long-duration backup power.