EDP new goal of 90% cut in CO2 emissions includes suppliers, customers

  • Lusa
  • 28 June 2022

The company led Miguel Stilwell announced a new target of reducing carbon emissions by more than 90% across its value chain.

Energias de Portugal (EDP) on Tuesday announced a new group target of reducing carbon emissions by more than 90% across its value chain, from suppliers to end customers, anticipating the European Union goal of carbon neutrality by a full decade.

The new ambition, EDP executive director Miguel Setas told Lusa, is “to get to 2040 with more than a ninety-percent reduction in scope-three emissions, which is a very ambitious commitment, because it means that we will have our suppliers, our customers, neutral in carbon terms.”

The company’s sustainability strategy sets the goal of reaching 2030 with a 98% reduction of scope-one and -two carbon emissions – that is, those directly produced by EDP’s own activity and indirect emissions, such as losses in the electricity grid.

The plan also provided for a 50% reduction in scope-three emissions, which are external to EDP but involve its entire value chain, from suppliers and partners to clients. The company has decided to raise the bar in this way, anticipating by 10 years carbon neutrality in this area, with a more than 90% reduction in emissions and the rest in the form of offsets.

“There is now a new urgency, which is basically to say that it does not make sense only for companies to be concerned with their emissions, companies must also be concerned with the emissions that are along their value chain and, therefore, there is an increase in ambition, of demand, so that we can continue to make our commitment to carbon neutrality,” said Setas. “This means, in the case of EDP, being ten years ahead of Europe.”

He acknowledged that this is a major challenge, since it is “very difficult” for a company to control the emissions produced by its suppliers or clients.

Questioned about the difficulties of ensuring compliance with these targets in the various parts of the world where EDP is present, which include countries in Asia, for example, where environmental criteria are less stringent than in the EU, Setas stressed that the “journey” would be made “in partnership” with the company’s suppliers and customers.

EDP will, he said, have “obviously, more demanding qualification criteria, but also a direct involvement with partners to ensure that it includes empowerment within the industry and solutions that are shared, that are not simply demands from EDP in relation to its partners, but that are part of working together and in partnership.”

In its business plan to 2025, EDP has committed to capital spending of €24 billion, of which 80% is focused on the expansion of renewable energy capacity, with the aim of getting to 2025 with no more coal used in electricity production.