Mobile Industry Emissions Fall By 8%, According to New Report

A new report, commissioned and carried out by the mobile telecommunications industry body the GSMA, states that the mobile industry has reduced total operational emissions in recent years by 8%.

Over a four-year period between 2019 and 2023, the report states carbon and greenhouse gas emissions generated directly by the mobile industry fell by 4.5% between 2022 and 2023, the fastest rate yet. However, this is still slower than the target rate of 7.5% required to meet industry targets.

In the same period, the mobile industry continued to rise in value. Global carbon emissions, meanwhile, rose by 3%.

Emissions reductions must improve

While this decrease can be seen as encouraging, it indicates that the mobile industry as a whole is still falling short of the 2050 net zero target set by the GSMA in 2019.

To attain this, global industry emissions would need to decrease by 45% by 2030 — or twice as fast as they currently are.

It’s also important to note regional differences in emissions: Europe and Latin America both achieved operational emissions reductions of 56% and 36%, respectively, well above the global average. And while the mobile industry in mainland China was responsible for an overall increase over the same period, the study found that emissions per SIM connection were falling for the first time. This suggests that increased international cooperation and widening the availability of clean energy and eSIMs to a larger percentage of the global population may yield lower industry emissions in the coming years.

Much of the observed reduction in operation emissions is driven by strategic changes to company infrastructure, logistics and operations. The report singles out actions like switching to solar-powered large-scale storage facilities and the phasing out of diesel generators as significant drivers of emissions reduction. This demonstrates the wide range of opportunities device manufacturers and network operators have to improve sustainability. Concrete action across nearly every department — not just public-facing areas like product and packaging — is needed to adequately tackle industry emissions.

Mobile industry targets net zero by 2050

The GSMA has made the goal clear: halve all industry emissions by 2030, and achieve net zero by 2050, a target which the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) states is essential to slowing global warming. Other mobile industry players have set their own emissions targets. The Dutch phone manufacturer Fairphone is aiming for net zero by 2045, while tech giant Apple has pledged to become "carbon-neutral" as soon as 2030.

In its 2024 Sustainability Report, the British smartphone manufacturer Nothing identified five separate areas for reducing its environmental impact: circularity, climate action, packaging, chemistry, and supply chain. Again, this underlines the wide-ranging impact the mobile industry has on the environment, and the range of channels through which to combat this.

Nevertheless, the GSMA report results do indicate that global emission reduction is becoming more widespread. Possible drivers of this change include societal factors, like increased public environmental concerns and demand for greener mobile manufacturing methods, and technological innovations like eSIMs, 5G data networks, and new recycled materials.

As a digital-first telco, 1GLOBAL has first-hand experience of how new technological innovation can contribute to a fairer telecommunications strategy.

eSIMs

Software-based eSIMs are gradually supplanting plastic-and-gold SIM cards as the world’s most-used SIM format. New handsets, laptops, and tablets, as well as commercial Internet of Things (IoT) devices that use eSIMs, negate the need for the annual manufacture, packaging, and transportation of SIM cards.

Once found only in specialist IoT devices and flagship smartphone models, eSIMs are becoming increasingly available and affordable. The transition to eSIMs plays a key role in reducing e-waste. In 2024, SIM cards were responsible for over 18,000 tons of non-recyclable landfill, notwithstanding the further waste and emissions caused by their material procurement, manufacture, packaging, and transport.

As industry-leading experts, 1GLOBAL has supplied over 60 million eSIM profiles since 2018. The 1GLOBAL suite of telecommunications tools can help to meet the environmental challenges facing the mobile industry and deliver continually high standards of connectivity while enabling a more sustainable mobile industry strategy.

While eSIMs may only be a small part of the solution for net zero, their mass adoption is encouraging: by 2030, the majority of worldwide smartphone connections are expected to be via eSIM.

The Internet of Things (IoT)

A key takeaway from the GSMA report is the speed at which mobile requirements are growing. Global data demands have quadrupled since 2018.

Much of this spike in data is due to the IoT sector, which has experienced near-exponential growth over the same period. In 2024, there were over 18 billion industrial devices in use worldwide, while industry spending on maintaining and deploying devices is rising at an average of 10% year-on-year.

To remain viable and become environmentally sustainable in the face of this spiralling demand, the IoT industry must embrace longer-term solutions. 1GLOBAL has helped dozens of IoT businesses prepare for the future and undergo digital transformations with a range of personalized, scalable IoT solutions. Incorporating eSIM technology and leveraging 5G data networks can help IoT companies meet rising demand while ensuring sustainable levels of power consumption and reducing electronic waste.

Manufacturing and the circular economy

Circularity, as defined by the Nothing report, is one of the five pillars of a responsible mobile manufacturing strategy. The assembly and disposal of the mobile devices themselves is one of the most significant environmental stressors caused by the mobile industry. These two stages alone are responsible for up to 90% of a device’s total lifetime carbon emissions. Repairing, reusing, and embracing circular solutions like Device as a Service (Daas) can significantly extend the lifetimes of existing devices and mitigate manufacturing emissions.

1GLOBAL DaaS is designed for enterprises and organizations that need to provide their workforce with mobile connectivity. In many cases, the ordering and purchasing of a fleet of brand-new mobile devices is not only unaffordable but environmentally damaging. Once procured, every new device must then be configured by the in-house IT team before it can be handed over to the end-user. This entire process, from manufacture through delivery, configuration, and distribution, requires end-to-end optimization and reform to become an environmentally and financially sustainable practice.

That’s where device leasing options like 1GLOBAL’s DaaS come in.

DaaS instead offers companies the chance to make their mobile connectivity strategy part of the circular economy: with a DaaS solution in place, 1GLOBAL supplies all required devices, preconfigured and ready to use out-of-the-box. Then, when the rental period is over, or the organization wishes to scale back its number of devices, each handset is securely wiped of data and either recycled or refurbished for another client. The service also allows companies and individual users the option to trade in their own existing devices, entirely negating the need for a new handset. This DaaS solution is part of a wider shift towards a more responsible mobile device ecosystem: the refurbished and repaired mobile phone market is expected to be worth $150 billion by 2027. Today, 50% of operators surveyed by the GSMA in 2024 are currently making “significant progress” on implementing circular device policies. Repairing, recycling, and refurbishing old handsets is key to meeting sustainability targets.

This interest in a circular mobile ecosystem is shared by the public. The GSMA report found that longevity and ease of repair are now important considerations for 90% of new phone buyers.

The challenge ahead

Global emissions are still rising, both in overall volume and as a percentage of the previous year’s emissions. The telecommunications and mobile industries are so deeply enmeshed in multiple aspects of modern life, mobile operators, device manufacturers, and conglomerates must consider every aspect of their operations and ensure their commitment to sustainability extends beyond their core products. In the rapidly evolving telecommunications space, new challenges to net zero are constantly emerging — but so are new solutions. The industry is still divided on the impact of artificial intelligence, for example: while data center energy consumption has skyrocketed since 2019, largely due to AI, some industry figures hope that the technology may help to improve industry-wide energy efficiency. Elsewhere, proposed new SIM formats like the SoftSIM may offer a future where all SIMs are entirely virtual, requiring no physical components whatsoever.

What is clear is that change needs to accelerate, driven by private sector initiatives and governmental legislation. For device manufacturers and operators, embracing new innovations like eSIMs and clean energy isn’t just essential for the planet: it builds the foundations for sustainable, responsible growth.