Target 2020: 40 percent lower CO2 emissions
Telekom plans to reduce CO2 emissions by 40 percent by the year 2020
The German government has decided to phase out nuclear power without making any changes to its climate protection targets. This means that all of us will have to strengthen our efforts to achieve more energy efficiency by searching for additional potential that will enable us to reach the climate protection targets specified without relying on atomic energy. There is no doubt about it: CO2 emissions continue to rise globally. This fact makes us aware of the enormous responsibility that we must accept for the sake of the environment.
In 1995 Deutsche Telekom was the first DAX 30 enterprise to commit itself to climate protection by incorporating Germany's mandatory CO2 reduction targets in its corporate environmental policy.
We are fully aware of our corporate responsibility and have voluntarily defined our own ambitious climate protection goals as well. For example, our climate protection strategy defined in 2005 stipulated that we must reduce our overall CO2 emissions based on the period 1995 to 2020 by 20 percent.
We have already achieved this goal and can now revise our stated target: we intend to reduce our share of CO2 emissions by 40 percent by the year 2020. Neither the German government nor the European Union have such ambitious targets. And thanks to specific concrete steps, we are on the right track toward reaching this milestone. One of the steps Deutsche Telekom has taken is its Green Car Policy for ensuring sustainable mobility throughout the Group. By 2015 the CO2 emissions produced by new vehicles in the Group fleet should be just 110 grams per kilometer. In comparison, the European Union is demanding a reduction in emissions of 120 grams by 2015.
In the medium term we plan to convert those areas of the German telephone network that are still analog-based to IP technology for better energy efficiency and to make the entire network ready for future developments. Furthermore, we are currently working on ways to implement our climate protection strategy internationally. Based on corporate Group targets, combined with potentials at regional level, we want to define individual reduction goals for our international companies. What's more, when making investments we look for options that are favorable to our climate protection criteria. In the future we also want to focus on CO2 emission levels throughout the entire value chain of our products–from the extraction of natural resources to our manufacturing processes and even the sale of our products and services to our end customers.
