CO2 reduction
With company-wide climate protection measures, we avoid CO2 emissions, conserve resources, and use energy more efficiently.
Digitalization is changing our society. We support this change, making people's lives easier and enriching them. However, growing digital connectivity also consumes a great deal of energy. That is why we are making significant efforts to use energy more efficiently, save electricity in network operations, and have met all our company-wide electricity needs with renewable energy since 2021.
To support this, we have set a Group-wide climate action target: By the end of 2025, we had achieved our goal of climate neutrality in our own operations. Compared with 2017, we have reduced our emissions by more than 94 percent and neutralized the remaining 6 percent through high-quality CO2 sequestration projects. As a result, we are greenhouse gas neutral on an accounting basis (Scope 1 & 2). By no later than 2040, we aim to be fully climate neutral ("Net Zero") and leave no CO2 footprint across all three scopes. To better track our progress toward climate neutrality, we have set an interim target: By 2030, we aim to reduce CO2 emissions across Scopes 1–3 by 55 percent compared with 2020. By 2040, we aim to reduce at least 90 percent of Scope 1–3 Emissions in absolute terms. Any remaining amount of up to 10 percent would be offset. This target applies to the entire Group, including T-Mobile US, and further strengthens our climate targets. The Science Based Targets Initiative has confirmed that the climate targets for 2030 (near-term) and 2040 (long-term), as science-based Net Zero targets, contribute to meeting the Paris Climate Agreement.
Key measures for achieving our climate protection target include using energy efficiently and transitioning to new, energy-efficient technologies for network operations and data centers. In addition, sourcing 100 percent renewable electricity ensures that operating our networks and data centers does not generate climate-damaging emissions.
We consolidate data traffic in a small number of highly efficient data centers. We also continuously optimize our existing ones. For example, we modernize cooling systems and further develop IT technology. Both measures can significantly reduce energy consumption.
In our networks, we are replacing older equipment with new technology, as we did when transitioning to IP technology in our fixed-network business. Other measures that help us save energy and, in turn, reduce CO2 emissions include managing our properties more efficiently and making our corporate fleet more climate-friendly.
Above all, we also help our customers conserve resources and reduce energy consumption, for example through our continually growing range of sustainable products and services. This enables millions of Telekom customers to avoid many tons of CO2 every year. Cloud computing example: Using software and IT infrastructure directly in TelekomCloud consumes up to 80 percent less energy in our highly efficient data centers than using customer-owned infrastructure.
