The latest report released at the 2025 MWC Shanghai event shows that despite nearly a fourfold increase in mobile data traffic in China since 2019, Chinese mobile operators have managed to achieve a year-on-year decrease in operational carbon emissions for the first time in 2024, thanks to improvements in energy efficiency and an increased use of renewable energy.
The report states that China is the world’s largest mobile communications market, with over one billion 5G connections, accounting for 57% of the total mobile connections in the country; in comparison, Europe currently has only 200 million 5G connections, accounting for just 30% of its total.
The decrease in carbon emissions is encouraging and reflects that an increasing number of mobile operators in the region are setting voluntary climate goals. To date, four operators have passed recent scientific carbon target validations, and three have been validated for net-zero emissions targets. Several key suppliers have also committed to follow scientific carbon targets and the 2050 net-zero target.
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