The mobile industry is successfully using energy with increasing efficiency and reducing its emissions, according to the GSMA’s fifth annual Mobile Net Zero report.
The organization found that emissions from the mobile industry fell by 8% between 2019 and 2023 despite the fact that connections grew by 9% and traffic increased by a factor of four.
The press release for the report said that the findings indicate that the mobile industry has decoupled emissions from data and connectivity growth. In contrast, global emissions generally have increased 4% since 2019.
“Our findings show the mobile industry isn’t greenwashing or greenwishing — it’s green acting. Emissions are trending in the right direction, but the pace of progress must now double,” Steven Moore, GSMA’s Head of Climate Action, said in the press release.
“This is a global effort, and it’s encouraging to see momentum building across every region — from Latin America to Europe and especially to China… But to sustain this progress, we need broader support: better access to renewables, more policy certainty, and stronger collaboration across the ecosystem. Climate transition plans will play an increasingly important role in navigating what comes next.”
Other findings from the mobile emissions report:
- Preliminary 2024 data suggests a further 4.5% drop in emissions. This is an acceleration — but still short of the 7.5% annual reduction needed until 2030.
- 37% of electricity used by operators disclosing to CDP came from renewables in 2023. This avoided 16 million tons of emissions.
- 81 mobile operators (which provide almost half of global connections) have set or committed to science-based targets.
- Europe (-56%), North America (-44%), and Latin America (-36%) lead in operational mobile emissions reductions between 2019 and 2023, the report found.
- A new analysis of China shows operational emissions fell by 4% in 2024. This is the country’s first recorded decline.
It is important to keep in mind that the dynamics of the mobile industry are changing as more operators enter the field. For instance, cable mobile service operators are offering competitive total cost of ownership on at least three phones — the Apple iPhone 16, the Samsung Galaxy S25, and the Google Pixel 9 — according to an April study by GlobalData.
