Client
Expertise
Climate risks and opportunities
Impact
Paving the path for climate resilient mobile penetration.
Challenge
How can telecommunication companies increase digital inclusion across Africa without contributing further to climate change?
Mobile penetration spurs economic growth and transforms lives, connecting individuals, families, communities and nations across Africa to new opportunities. Although the sector is growing, three-quarters of the population remains offline. By expanding their networks across hard-to-reach areas, telecommunication companies such as Airtel Africa connect the unconnected and bridge the digital divide.
Expanding coverage, however, increases energy demand. When grid electricity infrastructure is underdeveloped, this demand is often met by carbon-intensive diesel generators. Since the impact of the climate crisis is very real for Africa and the company’s future, Airtel Africa plans to mitigate emissions that could result from expanding its network. At the same time, the telecommunications company wants to strengthen its climate resilience and leverage the opportunities a Net Zero future presents.
From Chad to Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Kenya, Airtel Africa's operational sites are often in remote areas. This complex structure makes determining the sources of emissions and climate-related risks much harder. Together with the Carbon Trust, Airtel Africa sought to cut through the complexity.
SOLUTION
Establishing an action-centric roadmap for a resilient, Net Zero future
The climate-related risks businesses face often intertwine with their impact on the climate. Conversely, action towards Net Zero can mitigate certain risks and build climate resilience. For Airtel Africa, this meant understanding the emission hotspots and local climate risk exposure in all 14 markets across East, Central and West Africa. To help Airtel Africa advance its sustainability strategy, we:
Calculated the baseline Scope 1, 2 and 3 footprints for the company and its 14 markets. As part of this, we helped capture and dissect vast amounts of data from each market.
Developed emission profiles for each of Airtel Africa’s markets, from Malawi to Rwanda, determining the main sources of emissions across the company’s data centres, towers, shops and fleets.
Substantiated Airtel Africa's climate risk exposure and the financial impact across each market. Risks included carbon taxes and how these could influence operational costs.
Identified carbon reduction initiatives for each market and modelled their impact on Airtel Africa’s forecasted carbon footprint. For example, we determined that by implementing energy efficiency initiatives in Nigeria, Airtel Africa has the potential to lower its total carbon emissions by 14%.
Designed a Net Zero roadmap. The roadmap details the short-, medium- and long-term steps and deployment timelines for reduction initiatives to ensure alignment across Airtel Africa’s markets. The roadmap also accentuates how the company can communicate progress in line with the TCFD recommendations.
Uncovered the gap between Airtel Africa’s Net Zero ambition and suppliers’ reduction targets. Since Scope 3 emissions account for over 80% of Airtel Africa’s carbon footprint, it reiterates the importance of joining forces with mobile network operators to address emissions from telecommunications towers.
IMPACT
Building climate resilience for a Net Zero future in Africa
As a telecommunications provider, Airtel Africa has a unique opportunity to support the continent’s social and economic transformation. By laying the foundations for a Net Zero strategy, Airtel has a better understanding of its relationship with the environment. The insights gained empower Airtel Africa to bridge the digital divide while building its climate resilience and leveraging new opportunities. They enabled the company to:
Integrate greenhouse gas management into its broader growth strategy. Airtel Africa has held interactive workshops with each operating company to build support for on-the-ground climate initiatives and their timelines.
Foster collaboration with its partners. Following the insights into its Scope 3 footprint, Airtel Africa set up a partner and supplier engagement programme (PSEP) with core suppliers and partners to drive reductions across the value chain.
Enhance its investment case by disclosing the company’s climate impact and risks in line with the TCFD recommendations. This will only become more valuable as Airtel Africa actively works to further improve its performance.
Airtel Africa’s Net Zero ambition and its focus on renewable energy sources are vital components of its strategy to unlock the continent’s immense potential.
