Nokia CEO and president Pekka Lundmark (pictured) appeared on CNBC during the COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference, sharing insight on sustainability and spectrum coordination, and why Europe needs to up its game in these areas.

Europe is “quite advanced in climate action but we are behind in digitalisation,” Lundmark said, adding the two go hand-in-hand. “There is no green without digital,” he said. “The world is only 30 per cent digital today, we need to digitalise the rest if we want to decarbonise.”

Lundmark argued Europe could advance faster with more cooperation. “Every single country in Europe makes their own frequency allocation decisions, which makes it inefficient,” he stated. “We have a lot to improve if we want to compete against Asia and the US”.

The executive also highlighted Nokia’s progress on climate control, which includes a recent pledge to use refurbished RAN gear in its work with Orange. Lundmark explained Nokia’s emissions are much lower than those of its customers, meaning the primary way the vendor can reduce emissions is by helping operators to do so.

Nokia’s newest product generation cuts electricity consumption by 75 per cent, Lundmark claimed. But the industry has a long way to go, he added: “We are not anywhere near where we need to be on this emissions trajectory.”