In the context of our integrated climate strategy, we determine climate-related risks and opportunities for us as a company and for our stakeholders . Our Board of Management is informed quarterly about current climate risks in a Group Risk Report. Further information on risk management is provided in the “Risk and opportunity management” section of our annual report.

Physical risks
Extreme weather conditions as a consequence of climate change will have a negative impact on our business processes and will inevitably lead to incidents or even network outages. Among the effects of such breakdowns is their massive impact on the management of rescue operations, for example, sometimes even rendering such emergency efforts entirely impossible. In order to be able to react appropriately in these cases, we have defined the necessary responsibilities, processes, and measures in our internal “Group Policy on Continuity and Situation Management”. Additionally, the policy outlines how to handle emergency and crisis situations like floods.

We also take possible consequences of climate change into account when planning our future business activities. For example, our network infrastructure is set up to be better protected from storm conditions, changes in temperature, and high winds and keep mobile supply infrastructure on hand for emergencies.

Financial risks
Climate change also carries financial risks, whether from levies on carbon emissions or through an increase in energy costs. Our contribution to the mitigation of these risks includes measuring our own energy efficiency and developing measures for improvement. To prevent infrastructure failure due to extreme weather events, additional investment in a more robust infrastructure might be necessary.

Prevention
We also help our customers reduce their own carbon footprint, thus helping to mitigate climate change, by providing them with innovative solutions. Examples include projects in the area of sustainable urban development and mobility, and also a real-time solution for agriculture (precise positioning). It can be used, for instance, to correct GPS  data that is often too inaccurate for agricultural purposes and transmit precise location data in real time – using 5G mobile technology. Our low-threshold, comparatively inexpensive solution helps farmers deploy their machinery with greater precision, to reduce emissions, dose fertilizer and seeds more accurately, and increase their yields. That way we can also make an indirect contribution to achieving the second sustainable development goal (SDG) of “zero hunger.”

We also help our customers deal with the adverse effects of climate change (adaptation). In the event of an imminent catastrophe, our infrastructure can be used, for example, to send alerts via early warning apps. Climate change adaptation is part of the EU Taxonomy  Regulation, which we discuss here.