Vodafone 2026 Annual Report

Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2026

Strategic report

Governance

Financials

Other information

Protecting the Planet continued

Germany, successfully achieved its target to reach net zero emissions from its own operations by 2025. Measures put in place to achieve these milestones have presented significant benefits for the business: for example, efforts to make Vodafone Germany’s network more energy- efficient have saved up to 280 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in the past four years alone. Vodafone Germany’s milestone was achieved by reducing its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 93% since 2020 and neutralising the remaining emissions through investment in carbon dioxide removal projects. To advance towards our goal for the Group to be net zero in our operations by 2030, we seek to neutralise less than 10% of our emissions through carbon offsetting in line with the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s Core Carbon Principles. This year, we began procuring carbon removal credits to support Vodafone Germany in achieving net zero, and have developed a short term strategy for the Group to procure high quality credits across our European markets. As part of this strategy, we have planned to, where possible,

structural barriers to decarbonisation, with weak and unreliable grid infrastructure driving continued reliance on diesel generators for remote and network‑critical sites, compounded by regulatory, financial, and market constraints that delay the rollout of cleaner on‑site energy alternatives. In addition, we continue to prioritise the expansion of our network in Africa to support digital inclusion and connect rural communities. While this delivers significant social and economic benefits, such as improved access to essential services, it also creates additional challenges for decarbonisation. We are actively working to address the associated technological, market, and supply‑chain barriers to enable a just transition to net zero, with growing recognition that decoupling network expansion from increasing emissions will depend on collaboration with industry partners, suppliers, and wider societal actors. Click here for our approach and challenges to decarbonising Africa’s ICT sector: vodacom.com/protecting-the-planet Looking forward We intend to further build on this year’s success in order to progress against our net zero targets. In European markets, where renewable grid electricity is more easily accessible and electricity markets are more mature, we intend to continue focusing on energy optimisation. Specifically, we seek to leverage the deployment of artificial intelligence to optimise energy use and management. For example, we aim to further enhance the efficiency of our energy management through the introduction of intelligent automation platforms, which we believe will enable intelligent optimisation of energy consumption at scale. In our African markets, where energy systems are still maturing, our priority focus remains phasing out fossil fuels from our own operations and the power grids that we use. We seek to do so by growing partnerships, using energy as a service model to deploy on-site renewable energy and eliminate the need for large upfront capital investments in infrastructure.

Renewable electricity purchasing 1 and total energy use 2026

We have also progressed in transitioning away from the use of fossil fuels to power our network off-grid. We continued to roll out solar powered sites across our markets, using photovoltaic systems to generate renewable electricity on-site. Additionally, we operationalised the first ‘virtual wheeling’ project in South Africa using a platform we developed in collaboration with a South African energy utility provider. The platform enables independent power producers to feed the renewable power they generate into the grid at scale, helping expand access to clean energy. Finally, we trialled a low-cost hybrid diesel generator control system in Mozambique to reduce diesel use when there are grid outages by switching power supply to batteries, helping us reduce our reliance on diesel generators whilst maintaining the resilience of our network in the event of outages. We have also made progress in decarbonising our fleet. Around one quarter of the vehicles purchased and ordered in our fleet across Europe are now electric. The increase in proportion of electric vehicles has been driven by continued employee engagement and implementation of our company vehicle internal policies. During the year, we continued to engage our employees regarding the commercial benefits of transitioning to renewable energy and delivered training to equip teams with the skills they need to implement our decarbonisation programmes. In parallel, we developed advanced monitoring tools to provide energy consumption insights in real-time and support more effective energy optimisation. Implementing these new tools has supported our employees in gathering insights on where energy savings could be made, and where decarbonisation measures could be put in place. In addition to these milestones, our individual markets have also continued their progress towards achieving the Group net zero target. In June 2025, our largest European market, Vodafone

2025 2

Percentage of purchased grid electricity used and matched with renewable sources (%) Total energy use (GWh)

100

5,967 5,806 1. Correct to zero decimal places. Less than 0.2% of grid electricity used by Vodafone Group in FY26 is not matched with renewable sources. This is because in a small number of locations where we operate, there is no available renewable electricity purchasing mechanism and these locations are not grid-connected to any markets where such mechanisms are available. 2. The percentage of our grid electricity matched with renewable sources in FY25 has been restated to include Three UK, following the merger with Vodafone UK. Grid electricity consumed by Three UK was not fully matched with renewable sources in the FY25 reporting period. Read more about our approach to Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (‘SECR’) on page 58 We also maintained our commitment to match 100% of the grid electricity purchased and used in our global operations with electricity from renewable sources through power purchase agreements and RECs. In some markets (namely Mozambique, Lesotho, Tanzania, Romania and Albania), RECs or similar energy attribute tracking systems are not available for corporate buyers. This continues to limit the ability of corporates to signal market demand for renewable electricity. In the markets where we face such constraints, we support renewable purchasing in nearby grid-connected countries to support the energy transition in the wider region. There is one location (North Cyprus) where we operate where it is not feasible to match our electricity use with renewable sources, because there is no energy attribute tracking system in place and no grid connection to a market where such a mechanism exists. This location constitutes less than 0.2% of our global grid electricity use. Whilst we have progressed in reducing market- based Scope 2 emissions in Africa, we face significant challenges in reducing Scope 1 emissions. Telcos operating in Africa face

invest in projects that will generate benefits for local communities and help restore local ecosystems in countries or regions where we operate. Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 2026 million tonnes CO 2 e

2025 million tonnes CO 2 e

Scope 1 and 2 (market-based) Scope 1 and 2 (location-based)

0.26 2.21

0.30 2.22

During the year, we re-baselined our GHG emissions following the merger between Three UK and Vodafone UK. This contributed to a 12% decrease in Scope 1 and 2 emissions between FY25 and FY26, due to Three UK not matching grid electricity use with renewables until FY26. This decrease was also driven by our Scope 1 and 2 climate transition initiatives, including further improvements in network energy efficiency and the rollout of on-site renewables.