Chiefs from Deutsche Telekom, Orange and Telefonica were among 26 companies from the telecoms and ICT sectors to form a coalition designed to boost efforts towards European Union climate change goals.

The heads of Vodafone Group, Nokia and Ericsson were also among those to sign a declaration to support the region’s environmental aims through a range of green digital transformation initiatives, the European Commission (EC) stated.

As a first step, the executives formed the European Green Digital Coalition, with targets around investment and development of “greener” digital technologies and more energy-efficient services.

In its statement, the EC added the coalition would also develop approaches to measure the overall environmental impact of green digital technologies, and work with other sectors to produce recommendations and guidelines involving climate-friendly digital transformation.

The EC explained the coalition would help Europe’s tech sector to “become more sustainable, circular and a zero polluter” while also contributing to the sustainability goals of “priority sectors” including “energy, transport, agriculture and construction”.

In a joint statement, the GSMA and ETNO hailed the telecom industry’s participation in the programme, pledging to aid coordination with the coalition’s ICT members by working closely with various digital associations.

Coalition members are set to focus on deploying energy- and material-efficient digital technologies and services, with the first results of its work due to be publicised in 2022.

ETNO estimated the telecoms sector is rapidly adopting renewable energy, with a 24 per cent increase between 2018 and 2019.