By Oystein Bergmann, Bureau Chief, Scandinavia

Nokia Monday announced that it has committed to reducing its total global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) to net zero by 2040, accelerating its previous target by ten years, and putting it ahead of the Paris Agreement target of net zero by 2050.

Nokia will also double down on its existing near-term, or 2030, target. Having already committed to halving its GHG emissions across Scope 1,2 and 3 by 2030 from a 2019 baseline, it today announced it will further accelerate the decarbonization of its own operations.

President and CEO of Nokia, Pekka Lundmark,  said: “Our new emission reduction targets show that net zero is a business priority for Nokia. We already help our telecoms customers to decarbonize by building sustainable, high-performance networks, and we work with a rapidly growing range of enterprise partners to reduce emissions and improve productivity. That journey will only accelerate, as Nokia launches more energy efficient solutions in next generation mobile, fixed, IP and optical networks and in software, silicon and systems. By committing to net zero by 2040 we build on our previous climate targets as we look to create technology that helps the world act together.

Nokia was the first telecoms vendor to have its 2030 Science Based Target (SBT) validated by the SBTi in 2017 and was among the first 100 companies across all sectors to do so.

It recalibrated its near-term targets in 2021 in line with a 1.5°C warming scenario, committing to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 from a 2019 baseline. This target implied that Nokia would reach net zero by 2050.

With today’s announcement Nokia reiterates its existing near-term target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent across its value chain (Scopes 1, 2 and 3), accelerates the decarbonization of its own operations (Scopes 1 and 2) as part of its near-term targets with complete decarbonization its car fleet and facilities, and explicitly sets a new long-term target to reach net zero by 2040 (Scopes 1, 2 and 3) by 2040.

To ensure its new long-term target aligns with climate science, Nokia has submitted its net-zero letter of commitment to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a partnership between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Nokia has also defined a net-zero pathway that will help it reduce emissions across its value chain. Key levers in the net-zero pathway include:

Product design and innovation: With more than 95% of emissions resulting from products in use, Nokia continues to improve the energy efficiency of its products and solutions.

Achieved a 50 per cent reduction in the average power consumption of 5G mMIMO Base stations by 2023 from 2019 baseline.

Introduced the Quillion chipset, which can help reduce power consumption for broadband access products with 50 per cent less power needed in fiber installations than previous generations.

Its FP5 network processor offers a 75 per cent reduction in power consumption compared to its previous generation.

Its latest optical network technology, the PSE-6s, can reduce network power consumption per bit in optical transport by up to 40 per cent compared to the PSE V.

Low-carbon electricity: Nokia is committed to using 100 per cent renewable electricity in its own facilities by 2025 and is working with its supply chain as it transitions to renewables.

Already achieved 63 per ce renewable electricity in its own facilities in 2022.

It uses a mix of on-site solar, Power Purchase Agreements, renewable electricity products directly obtained from an energy supplier, and renewable electricity certificates to procure the renewable electricity.

Energy and material efficiency: Nokia aims to achieve 95 per cent circularity by 2030 in relation to operational waste (waste from offices, labs, manufacturing, installation, and product takeback), driving actions to reduce landfilling.

In 2023, Nokia announced it would reduce packaging waste for its Fixed Networks Lightspan portfolio. This will lead to a 60 per cent decrease in packaging size and a 44 per cent reduction in the overall weight.

Carbon removals: Credible, permanent carbon removals and storage may be required to neutralize some residual emissions to reach net zero.

Nokia is examining credible solutions for carbon removals to support long-term net-zero targets.

Nokia is one of the few telecommunications vendors with its own fleet of marine vessels, playing a vital role in laying the cables that connect continents. Currently, Nokia-owned Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) has an installed base of more than 650,000 km of optical submarine systems deployed worldwide, enough to circumnavigate the globe 15 times. With marine fleets globally still largely reliant on fossil fuels, this presents a unique challenge for decarbonizing Nokia’s Scope 1 emissions. Nokia is targeting marine fleet emission reductions aligned with the International Maritime Organization decarbonization pathway and has already invested in more efficient vessels and trialed the use of biofuels to reduce emissions.

The Paris Agreement: An international treaty adopted in 2015, committing world governments to limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit temperature increases to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

1.5°C: In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that exceeding 1.5°C would lead to catastrophic impacts, leading to a broad consensus on the need to limit warming to 1.5°C.

Net zero: Net zero refers to a reduction of 90 per cent in greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, with a maximum of up to 10 per cent remaining hard-to-abate emissions being neutralized through carbon removals. To limit global warming to 1.5°C, greenhouse gas emissions must by halved by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.

Greenhouse gases (GHGs): Greenhouse gases refer to the set of gases that are direct causes of global warming. These include gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3).

Science-based targets: Science-based targets give companies a clearly defined path to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with limiting global warming to 1.5°C. They define how much and how quickly a business must reduce its emissions to be in line with the Paris Agreement goals. The Science Based Targets initiative requires that companies halve their emissions by 2030 and commit to long-term cuts of at least 90 per cent before 2050.

SBTi: The SBTi is a partnership between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Carbon removals: While the SBTi Net-Zero standard is focused on incentivizing emissions reductions within company value chains, it also recognizes that reaching net zero may require some residual (<10% of total footprint), hard-to-abate emissions to be neutralized through removals offsets, permanently removing and storing the carbon from the atmosphere.

Scopes 1, 2 and 3: The emissions a company creates in its own operations and across its value chain are:

Scope 1 emissions — GHG emissions that a company creates directly, for example facilities and fleet.

Scope 2 emissions — Indirect GHG emissions, mostly from purchased electricity.

Scope 3 emissions — All the GHG emissions that the organization is indirectly responsible for, across its value chain. For example, buying products from suppliers, through to the use of its products by its customers.