Sustainability
Digitalisation creates opportunities not only for innovation and competition but also for a climate-neutral economy (twin transition). As digitalisation progresses, the relevance of its impact on the environment also increases. One particular factor is the growing demand for resources from terminal devices, data centres and networks.
Germany’s federal government has set the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2045. The European Environment Agency concluded in its 2023 report that further action was still urgently required to achieve the EU’s ambitious climate and energy targets. The information and communication technology sector has an estimated share of between 2% and 4% in global greenhouse gas emissions. The demand for resources for the deployment and operation of telecommunications infrastructure is expected to grow further as a result of the increase in global data volumes as digitalisation progresses.
The Bundesnetzagentur supports the deployment of modern, high-performance and sustainable networks with its regulatory decisions. It uses its expertise in digital matters to support initiatives at national and European level to ensure that the telecommunications sector contributes to achieving the climate targets.
Date of modification: 2025.08.08
Links to past studies
Sustainability of digital business models (in German)