In the face of climate change and natural disasters, AT&T said Thursday (Sept. 17) that it was committing to being carbon neutral across its entire worldwide operations by 2035.
It also said it was expanding the Climate Change Analysis Tool (CCAT) it uses to calculate climate change impacts on its network up to 30 years out.
AT&T appears to have no corporate doubts that climate change is real and is behind some recent natural disasters.
“Our network is tested by climate change and natural disasters every year,” said AT&T CEO John Stankey. “We recognize the long-term impact these commitments can have, and we owe it to the millions of customers who rely on our services to create the most resilient and sustainable business we can.”
AT&T said it has spent approximately $1 billion "recovering from climate-related severe weather events" since 2016.
The company said it would get to net zero carbon emissions via various initiatives including virtualizing network functions; lowering its fleet emissions via route optimization, use of hybrids (and eventually decarbonization) and cutting the fleet size; reducing electricity use; expanding WarnerMedia sustainable TV and movie production--clean tech, re-use and waste reduction, etc.; power purchase through renewable energy developers; and carbon offset investments.
