Taiwan Mobile commits to Net Zero by 2050

(中央社訊息服務20220507 09:13:42) In line with the company’s policy of conserving energy and reducing carbon emissions, and will submit a commitment to reach that target to the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) by the end of this year.

In March 2022, Taiwan Mobile became the first telecom operator in Taiwan to join RE100, a global renewable energy initiative, and committed to using 100% renewable energy by 2040. Now, Taiwan Mobile is taking a step further by declaring its goal of reaching Net Zero emissions by 2050 and hopes to work together with both the government and other enterprises in building a sustainable future.

Taiwan Mobile Chairman Daniel Tsai said that extreme weather patterns are posing an existential threat to mankind and that there is no time to waste in the global efforts to reduce carbon emissions in a comprehensive way if the world is to succeed in limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Taiwan Mobile declared year 2022 the starting year of the company’s race to reach Net Zero emissions as the company continued to gradually increase the percentage of its green electricity use by both building company-owned power plants and buying renewable energy from outside sources, with the goal of having 70% of its renewable energy need being met by company-owned generators.

In addition, Taiwan Mobile goes about implementing the Science-Based Targets (SBT) by making a commitment to reduce 30% in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030, and reduce 15% in Scope 3 emissions based on the levels of 2019. With precise data analysis, Taiwan Mobile has designated stages in which those goals will be met in order to march towards Net Zero emissions and the realization of the sustainability vision.

Taiwan Mobile has planned ahead and taken early measures to cope with possible financial impact caused by climate change. As early as 2018, the company introduced practices of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) as its paramount framework for the assessment of corporate risk management. It is estimated that between 2022 and 2030, the company will have to spend a total of more than NT$10 billion on green electricity, carbon fee and carbon emissions measures.

Taiwan Mobile has set up a department exclusively responsible for the assessment, construction and operation of renewable power plants as well as finding suitable electricity suppliers as part of its effort to speed up development of green electricity. As of the end of 2021, Taiwan Mobile had secured an installed capacity for generating 12.46 MW in green energy, which has been in operation, and before the end of 2022, it is expected that another 3.5MW of power generation will be switched to solar photovoltaic sources. By then, Taiwan Mobile is forecasted to use up to 24.95 million kWh in green electricity, which will lead to nearly 12,524 metric tons in reduced carbon emissions.

Those in the private sector have a strong needs to increase the use of green electricity but they are currently facing the predicament of supply always falling behind the level of demand. Taiwan Mobile urges the government to take the strong corporate demand for green electricity seriously by substantially expanding the ecosystem for green energy supply and increasing the speed of the sector’s development so that enterprises can accelerate the speed to realize Net Zero.

Besides actively developing sources for green electricity, Taiwan Mobile has worked hard to reduce the use of grey energy. Those efforts include the promotion of energy-saving methods when building base stations, the adoption of energy-efficient air conditioning and lighting and other environment-friendly practices, which saved 10.778 million kWh of electricity in 2021. In addition, to conserve more energy, reduce carbon emissions further and to improve the efficiency of spectrum use, Taiwan Mobile hopes the authorities will approve as quickly as possible the company’s merger with T STAR, another telecom operator in the country. Following the merger, a 3G network and thousands of redundant 4G base stations will be eliminated, which will save up to 74 million kilowatt-hours in power consumption per year. Carbon emissions can also be reduced by 37,148 metric tons, equal to the amount of emissions which will take 95 Daan Forest Parks to neutralize in a year.

In addition, Taiwan Mobile has been working with its suppliers on reducing carbon emissions, including continued efforts to promote carbon emissions investigation, the requirement of quantitative ESG performance evaluation as a qualification for would-be bidders and a plan to establish carbon emissions reduction KPI’s according to the roadmap to Net Zero emissions. It is estimated that, by 2030, Taiwan Mobile’s suppliers will reduce carbon emissions by 20% over the levels of 2020.