Airtel joins global efforts to combat climate change

ITANAGAR, 22 Sep: Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel) on Tuesday announced its commitment to contribute to global efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change and build a sustainable planet.

Airtel, India’s leading provider of telecommunications services, has joined the Science Based Targets initiative’s (SBTi) – ‘Business Ambition for 1.5°C’ campaign’ and adopted targets to significantly reduce its carbon footprint and emissions from its network operations.

With this, Airtel joins the league of leading global corporations who have committed to the 1.5°C pathway outlined by the SBTi – a partnership between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Bharti Airtel’s legal cell Director Vidyut Gulati said, “Climate change is the biggest challenge facing humanity. We must act collectively without further delay to ensure we do not go past the point of no return and have a sustainable planet.” He added that businesses have a fundamental responsibility to contribute to this effort and Airtel has adopted an ambitious target in this direction and will report its progress transparently.

In a related development, Airtel has also become the first Indian telecommunications company to join the United Nations (UN) Global Compact- the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world.

By becoming a signatory to the UN Global Compact framework, Airtel is aligning its comprehensive Environmental, Societal and Governance (ESG) initiatives to the global body’s 10 principles spanning Environment, Human Rights, Anti-Corruption and Labour.