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Finnish-headquartered communications technology firm Nokia has announced a 2025 target to power its operations and facilities, including offices, R&D labs, and factories with 100% renewable energy by 2025.
The announcement was made by Pekka Lundmark, the CEO of Nokia at the COP26 summit in Glasgow.
The target will enable Nokia to reduce its carbon footprint and global greenhouse gas emissions in addition to reducing its energy costs.
Nokia has also committed to reducing its emissions by 50% across its value chain, including its own operations, products in use, logistics, and final assembly supplier factories by 2030.
Its commitments have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to be in line with the Paris Agreement’s aim of limiting global warming to 1.5C. With 90% of its emissions coming from customer use of products, Nokia says it will invest in improving product energy efficiency – even as capacity grows.
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In 2020, 39% of the electricity consumed by Nokia was sourced from renewable sources, according to the company.
The telco says it will support various governments and energy companies in deploying clean resources to make renewables available in the 120 countries that the company operates in.
However, Nokia has called for an increase in the use of digital technologies and for the public sector to provide a framework for stimulus, regulation and standardisation that supports a greener, digitalised world.
Lundmark, said: “There is no green without digital. Only 30% of the world’s economy is currently digitalised, and we must now work to connect the remaining 70% to ensure the world can reach net zero. 5G and related technologies play a critical role in making other industries more sustainable. At the same time, the ICT industry needs to minimise its footprint and accelerate the use of green electricity.”
Lundmark said by digitising, players across the energy value chain are able to reduce energy waste, improve efficiency and ensure greater productivity. For instance, digitalisation can help wind farm operators automate offshore wind farms, allowing them to operate more productively.