GSMA touted a 50% increase in mobile operator greenhouse gas emissions cuts over the last year despite pandemic-related challenges, according to the organization's 2022 Mobile Net Zero Report.

The report found that 62% of the telecom industry by revenue has committed to reducing emissions in the next decade. That works out to be 49 operators, an increase of 18 since 2020. Additionally, half of the industry by revenue has made a commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 at the latest.

GSMA's report also looks at the actual emissions of the industry. It found that carbon emissions from mobile operators increased 2% on average in 2021, which it posits as a "success" considering 5G networks' global expansion and "double-digit growth in data traffic."

That 2% figure was kept so low as a result of operators' investments in energy efficient network equipment and renewable energy sources amid significant increases in customer demand, according to GSMA.

Although GSMA acknowledges further work is necessary to eventually reach net-zero emissions from the telecom industry, it noted significant progress in decoupling data traffic from electricity use and the associated carbon emissions.

While data traffic increased 31% and electricity consumption 5% last year, the associated emissions only increased 2%.

This was achieved through increasing energy efficiency with machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and virtualization to optimize all parts of a network and its resources. The report found 18% of all electricity usage came from renewable sources like wind or solar in 2021, which represents a 14% jump from the previous year.

To that point, the GSMA encourages governments to build viable energy market frameworks for businesses to access clean energy at a competitive price compared to fossil-fuel based energy.

"We are proud that the mobile industry continues to align around the 1.5C decarbonization pathway, even in the face of double-digit growth in demand for mobile services. We have far more to do to achieve our net-zero ambitions, but mobile will undeniably play an essential role in helping industries and individuals across the globe reduce their carbon impact," GSMA Director General Mats Granryd said in a statement.