"Climate change is a major challenge for the Group. This has become a business issue that feeds its service offerings and future value creation. Supported by the growing involvement of its consumers and stakeholders, as well as by the recommendations of financial players and the TCFD, the Group is now well on its way to reconciling financial performance and CSR."
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Our commitments for the climate
Certain that we are facing a climate emergency and fully aware of the importance of the role that we play, our Group has given itself the ambition of contributing to a transition to a carbon-neutral world by considering the control of its greenhouse gas emissions as a major challenge. Since 2015, we have been firmly committed to aligning ourselves with the Paris Agreement*. We are drastically reducing emissions related to our industrial activities, and we have recently obtained SBT* certification for our new objectives for 2030, a key step toward the Group’s carbon neutrality. Finally, in a formulation adopted by the General Shareholders’ Meeting in 2020, the Group’s purpose reconciles economic performance with a positive impact on people and the planet.
An early commitment to protecting the climate
For the past 15 years or so, our Group's actions have been part of the fight against climate change. This commitment was given new impetus in 2015 with the implementation of an action plan, supplemented by international objectives and commitments and subject to detailed reporting. Since then, we have substantially reduced our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We have done this by making radical strategic changes, focusing on our low-carbon activities and helping our customers consume less energy, greener energy and achieve greater comfort. The model covers the three areas of sustainable value creation: People, Planet, Profit.
As a result, we reduced our CO2 equivalent emissions by 56% between 2012 and 2018 and in 2019, 93% of our activities were low-carbon.
- Adoption in 2014 of an ambitious objective to reduce the carbon intensity of our electricity production by 20% by 2020.
- Promotion of the most efficient and virtuous technologies (energy efficiency, condensing boilers, heat pumps, renewable energy, etc.).
- Involvement in the construction of the international framework for the fight against climate change through joining and supporting initiatives such as the World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund, Caring for Climate (United Nations Global Compact) or the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD*).
- Support for initiatives to develop carbon prices (Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, WEF Climate Leaders, ETS Strengthening for a Better Price Signal, Quinet Commission in France, etc.) and adoption in 2015 of an internal carbon price that facilitated the phasing-out of coal activities.
- Improved reporting quality and transparency.
- Continued long-standing climate dialogue with NGOs and more recent dialogue with investors.
"Climate change is a major challenge for the Group. This has become a business issue that feeds its service offerings and future value creation. Supported by the growing involvement of its consumers and stakeholders, as well as by the recommendations of financial players and the TCFD, the Group is now well on its way to reconciling financial performance and CSR."
Anne Chassagnette Group Director of CSR and CEO of the Rassembleurs d’Énergies impact investment fund
Our 2030 objectives for reducing our carbon footprint
With the target of commissioning 9 GW of renewable energies from 2019 to 2021 now fully secured, along with the rapid phasing-out of our coal activities, our business model is changing quickly, in line with our purpose.
To reduce our impact through the creation of sustainable value, we have extended our CSR performance indicators RSE with a new list of 19 objectives for 2030.
See our CRS goals and performance
Among these objectives, 2 key objectives relating to climate change will be integrated in a recurring reporting given the large role they play in moving ENGIE forward:
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the production of electricity to 43 Mt in 2030 (for 149 Mt in 2016 and 80 Mt in 2019). ENGIE has been awarded 2° C certification by the SBTi*
- Increase the share of renewable energies in the power production capacity mix to 58% (for 20% in 2016 and 28% in 2019)
A new phase in 2020: ENGIE defines its purpose
The definition of our purpose statement marks a new phase in the history of the company and will now make it possible to rally all of our employees and our stakeholders around a shared aim: reconciling economic performance with a positive impact on people and the planet.
Find out more:
The world leader in the low-carbon transition, ENGIE publishes an annual scorecard of indicators on energy transition, and more particularly on the climate.
(*) Climate glossary
- Paris Agreement* or COP21 : in 2015, the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Paris concluded with an initial agreement to limit the temperature increase to 2° C and, wherever possible, to move towards the objective of 1.5° C by comparison with the pre-industrial era. The text takes into account the needs and means of the signatory countries. It is sustainable over time with ambitions that can be revised upwards from time to time.
- SBT ou SBTi : the Science Based Targets initiative is a set of methodologies which make it possible to confirm on a scientific basis that the GHG emissions trajectory of a given organization is compatible with the objective of limiting the average global temperature increase to 2° C or 1.5° C. Some of these methods make use of the notion of a carbon budget divided between different economic sectors. For more information on SBT certification.
- TCFD : The TCFD was set up by the G20 in order to define recommendations relating to the financial transparence of companies with respect to the climate.