French Multinationals Schneider Electric & EDF Reveal Green Targets Ahead Of One Planet Summit
A day before French Presidents Emmanuel Macron’s One Planet Summit launches, two French multinationals — Schneider Electric and EDF Group — have together signed up to The Climate Group’s corporate leadership campaigns RE100, EP100, and EV100, sending a strong signal to governments that businesses are stepping up to fight climate change.
The announcement was made on Monday ahead of the One Planet Summit, which will bring together heads of state and business leaders to discuss and brainstorm how to mobilize and direct financing toward low-carbon projects that support and accelerate climate change solutions. The Summit, to be hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, alongside World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, and UN Secretary General António Guterres, comes two years to the day after the Paris Climate Agreement was concluded.
In a move designed to send a strong signal to those attending the Summit, two big-name French multinational companies made known their own green commitments. Specifically, energy management and automation leader Schneider Electric announced that it had committed to sourcing 100% renewable electricity by 2030 through The Climate Group’s RE100 corporate leadership campaign, and simultaneously committed to doubling its energy productivity by 2030 through EP100.
Meanwhile, French utility EDF Group has committed to transitioning to electric vehicles by 2030 through The Climate Group’s EV100 campaign.
“Today’s announcements by EDF and Schneider Electric are important moves by businesses showing their ongoing commitment to delivering on the Paris agreement,” said Helen Clarkson, Chief Executive Officer, The Climate Group. “These companies are giants in their sectors, so their commitments to purchasing renewable energy, vastly improving energy productivity, and switching to electric vehicles, send clear and significant market signals.”
“Joining RE100 and EP100 represents a smart business decision for Schneider Electric,” Clarkson continued. “These commitments will help the company to deliver on its wider climate ambition to become carbon neutral by 2030. Doubling energy productivity will help it to use energy as economically as possible while making the transition to renewables, which are themselves cost-competitive in many markets.”
Schneider Electric will seek to transition to 100% renewables through a range of renewable electricity sources across over 1,000 of its sites around the world, and includes on-site projects such as geothermal and solar energy, off-site Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for wind and solar power, and renewable electricity certificates and green tariffs.
“When it comes to the climate, I’m neither an optimist nor a pessimist, I’m an activist,” explained Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman and CEO, Schneider Electric. “Prosperity and energy are intertwined. For Schneider Electric, contributing to the process of achieving carbon neutrality is an ambitious and productive challenge. Joining The Climate Group’s EP100 and RE100 initiatives is a demonstration of how consumers and business can be empowered to ensure the affordability, resilience, sustainability, and security of the energy that they consume.”
Meanwhile, French utility EDF Group will transition to all electric vehicles by 2030.
“We believe in the importance and the development of electric mobility in towns and regions,” added Jean-Bernard Lévy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, EDF. “For us, joining the EV100 initiative demonstrates this belief. And that’s why I am particularly proud of our commitment to convert the whole of our car fleet to electric by 2030. We have to be among the forerunners and show just how important this field is. This commitment answers the expectations of our stakeholders.”
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