Nokia announces it will halve emissions from 2019 to 2030

Nokia has announced that by 2030, its emissions across both its own operations and products in use will be reduced by 50%.

Nokia’s new targets have been signed off by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), which fulfil its commitment to align with a limited global temperature rise of 1.5°C.

First committing to SBTs in 2017, Nokia’s initial goals were based on limiting global warming to 2°C. The company achieved 90% of its saving targets within its own operation (scope 1 and 2) 11 years ahead of target, and was on track to deliver its scope 3 targets for products in use with its customers.

A more ambitious target is being adopted by Nokia now, which considers a limited 1.5°C increase, using 2019 as the baseline. These targets have been expanded to cover a broader base, close to 100% of the company’s current product portfolio, and also now include emissions from both logistics and assembly factories within its supply chain, as well as its own operations emissions.

Products in use contribute the most to Nokia’s carbon footprint, and the company is addressing this in numerous ways, ranging from hardware and software energy efficiency to product design, modernisation and better use of resources. For instance:

• Nokia’s ReefShark chipset used in AirScale radio products cuts energy use by up to 66%
• The Compact Active Antenna has enabled the use of far less materials than any other legacy macro product
• A liquid cool 5G base station, which can reduce energy consumption of the base station cooling system by 90%, was first delivered into commercial operations by Nokia
• The Nokia AVA Energy Efficiency service reduces energy use by 20% through cloud-based AI, which powers down parts of the radio network when traffic levels are low

In December 2020, Nokia was recognised for its contributions towards reducing emissions, mitigation climate risks and developing a low-carbon economy. It was also included on CDP’s A List in the Climate Change category, the de facto standard for carbon disclosure.

Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO at Nokia, said: “We have led the way in reducing emissions from our own operations and helping our customers to do the same by continuously innovating to make our products more energy efficient in recent years. But climate change is a race against time. These tougher, new, scientifically-calibrated climate targets mean we will go further and faster to reduce our carbon footprint and ensure sustainability is at the heart of our product design and the smart solutions we enable.”