What we have achieved
What it’s all about
The 2015 Paris Agreement represents a major milestone in terms of worldwide measures taken to limit global warming. Almost every state on earth has already defined binding national climate change mitigation goals. Companies are also taking responsibility here. EnBW set its course back in 2013:
Since then, we have undergone a profound transformation from a conventional energy supply company to a provider of sustainable infrastructure. We are rigorously investing in the expansion of renewable energies and grids and have firmly anchored sustainability in our corporate strategy. Our aim is to achieve climate neutrality by 2035, thereby making our contribution to the Paris Agreement and the German government’s climate change mitigation targets. Our 26,000 employees are working day in, day out to make this possible.
Transformation
Transformation at EnBW
We have undergone a profound transformation over the last few years and are now a company that is fit for the future, with a clear focus as a provider of sustainable infrastructure for the energy and mobility transition.
Sustainability
Sustainability at EnBW
We firmly anchored the principle of sustainability in our corporate strategy back in 2012. It defines specific financial and non-financial targets that take account of the economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainability. This year, we have further developed and focused on our sustainability program. The resulting EnBW Sustainability Agenda is driving the transformation of the core business toward becoming a climate-neutral company.
Renewable energies
Renewable energies at EnBW
We primarily use the wind, sun and water as renewable energy sources but also utilize biomass and geothermal power. We are already able to supply the equivalent of over four million households with green electricity.
We work every single day to significantly expand wind power and photovoltaics. Our activities cover the stages of project development, construction, operation and the subsequent repowering of the power plants.
E-mobility
E-mobility at EnBW
As part of our extensive commitment to e-mobility as a relevant aspect of a successful mobility transition, we are focusing mainly on the expansion of a comprehensive quick-charging network throughout Germany. We operate the largest quick-charging network in Germany with more than 700 sites.
Climate neutrality target for 2035
This is coupled with the undertaking to develop reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions in carbon categories (known as scopes) 1, 2 and 3 within 24 months.
For Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions, we set the climate neutrality target for 2035 back in 2020. Remaining greenhouse gas budgets are worked out accordingly for this target as part of the SBTi process. Scopes 1 and 2 concern direct emissions from power and heat generation plants (Scope 1) and line-loss emissions attributed to the power grids (Scope 2). We will also develop a carbon emissions target for Scope 3 within this process. Scope 3 emissions largely originate from the gas business (gas procurement and combustion by the end customer).
The SBTi commitment
In this context, we will also set out our path for the phasing out of coal-fired power generation in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, while also focusing on guaranteeing security of supply. After all, we believe that the phaseout of coal in Germany by 2030 is both possible and feasible – provided that we make much faster progress than before in expanding renewables and have a sufficient number of power plants that can operate on climate-neutral gases to stabilize the grid if necessary or reliably step in if there are any supply shortages.
Significance for the coal phaseout
Our position
In the Paris Agreement of 2015, the international community came together in an effort to combat the climate crisis using concrete measures. Seven years later, scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Sixth IPCC Assessment Report – AR6) are warning that the world is on track for 2.7 degrees of warming. Yet this is not the only major challenge facing the 27th United Nations Climate Conference this year in Egypt.
The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has triggered a massive energy crisis. All around the world, we are experiencing a situation characterized by a considerable degree of uncertainty. This uncertainty surrounds the security of the energy supply and reveals a certain vulnerability due to the high dependence on fossil fuels. It also stems from the price trend for electricity and gas and associated social and economic challenges. A diversified and climate-friendly energy supply has thus become a question of security.
Against this background, the commitments made by industrialized countries to developing and emerging countries are needed more than ever. The climate crisis ultimately does not take the current war situation into consideration. The acute consequences of the climate crisis are visibly increasing, threatening livelihoods and affecting energy supply and transport routes – due to drought and low river water levels, for example. The crisis clearly shows that we must now accelerate the transition to a long-term carbon-free energy supply. After all, every megawatt-hour generated by renewable energies makes us less dependent on fossil fuels.
EnBW is focused on working with politicians and business leaders to quicken the pace of the energy transition.
A faster energy transition
Our declared aim is to bring about a faster energy transition. It also means measuring our decisions and investments even more consistently against sustainability criteria and gearing our growth toward them. In particular, this means that we are continuing to invest intensively in the energy transition in order to achieve our climate change mitigation goals: in renewable energies, in the expansion of electricity and gas grids and in gas power plants that can initially be operated with natural gas and then climate-neutral hydrogen, compensating for volatile generation from renewables. This also includes our investment in a nationwide charging infrastructure for sustainable e-mobility.
No compromise on climate change mitigation
Even though short-term measures to guarantee security of supply are putting a strain on the climate budget – i.e., the emissions budget still available globally – there must now be an effort to set the course for a climate-neutral energy supply as quickly as possible. As part of the SBTi process, we will define the next steps here and also expand our climate change mitigation target to include Scope 3 emissions. We are also once again investing heavily in renewable energies, expanding the corresponding transmission and distribution grid infrastructure and helping to boost hydrogen availability with our own projects. To this end, however, we need close cooperation between all stakeholders: the European Union, the German government, the state, the Federal Network Agency and businesses.
We would also like to see this kind of close cooperation from the international community. The current amount of money that industrialized countries have to invest in social measures and energy security must not be at the expense of the industrialized countries’ commitments to finance climate change mitigation measures and damage caused to the climate in emerging and developing countries. With this in mind, we wish the negotiators at COP27 every success with the negotiations.