Sustainability and mobile technologies

Mobile technologies have penetrated into our lives immensely. We have become so hooked on to our mobile phones that we cannot think about leaving home without our devices.  For many of us living in the more developed parts of the world, it is a social need more than anything, something like an addiction. But for the majority of the world's population, mobile technologies signify more. Connectivity to a doctor in a city can mean the difference between life and death, more than to a person who lives in a remote village in Africa.
 
According to the 2016 Mobile Industry Impact Report: Sustainable Development Goals (SGA) by Deloitte for GSMA, the mobile industry has moved from being a luxury service provider in an analogue economy to providing the foundations of all interactions in the digital world. Two thirds of the world, or 4.7 billion unique subscribers, are now connected by mobile networks with approximately 200 million additional people being connected each year, 2.2 billion people have mobile broadband, enabling them to contribute to the digital economy. By the end of 2015, there were more than 310 million Internet of Things (IoT)/machine-to-machine (M2M) connections, with growth forecast to drive this to one billion connections by 2020, demonstrating the emerging scale and scope of the digital world and the mobile industry's role in it.

On Sept. 25, 2015, the heads of states, governments and High Representatives issued a declaration from the UN headquarters adopting the SDGs and their targets, and committing to work together to change the world.
All SDGs are impacted by the mobile industry to varying degrees, with the greatest impact being felt on SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, SDG 1: No Poverty, SDG 4: Quality Education and...