To deliver on our sustainability goals, we need to tackle the carbon emissions tied to our own energy generation and operations. We’ve already made significant progress and continue to work towards targets based on climate science.
Why are we reducing our emissions across our entire business?
Our vision at Ørsted is a world that runs entirely on green energy, and we aspire to be one of the leading catalysts for the transition. That starts with decarbonising our own energy generation and operations (scope 1-2).
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We have the most progressive decarbonisation targets in the energy sector, and we want to become a carbon-neutral company by 2025.
What are we doing?
- We’ve aligned our emissions reduction targets with the available climate science, as validated by the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi).
- With our science-based 2025 target, we’ve committed to reducing the emissions intensity in our energy generation and operations by at least 98 % from 2006 to 2025. This covers emissions from the generation of heat and power as well as our operations, including vessels, vehicles, and sites (scope 1-2).
- From 2025, we’ll offset our residual emissions through certified high-quality solutions, mainly nature-based carbon removal projects.
How are we doing?
We’ve come a long way in reducing our emissions and increasing the green share of our energy generation.
Latest updates from 2022
2022 was a bump in the road. We saw our absolute scope 1-2 emissions increase by 17 % as we temporarily had to resume coal use at Studstrup Power Station, Denmark. This was due to global scarcity of wood pellets following a ban on imports from Russia and a wood pellet fire at Studstrup.
Moreover, following orders from the Danish authorities to temporarily extend operation of three of our coal- and oil-fired power stations in order to ensure the security of the electricity supply in Denmark, we had to delay our 2023 zero-coal target to 2025.
We maintain that coal has no place in the future energy system, and we’re dedicated to phasing it out and reducing emissions.
Despite these setbacks, we managed to achieve a great deal in 2022:
- We’ve reduced the GHG intensity of our energy generation and operations by 87 % since 2006, reaching 60 g CO2e/kWh in 2022.
- We entered a pioneering agreement with one of our suppliers to invest in the world’s first service operation vessel (SOV) that can operate entirely on green fuels.
- We no longer buy or lease fossil-fuelled vehicles, and by the end of 2025, our entire light vehicle fleet will be fully electric.
- We’re maturing our portfolio of nature-based carbon removal projects. In 2022, we planted the first 240 hectares of mangrove propagules as part of phase one in our mangrove conservation and reforestation project in Gambia. We also worked with the World Bank to launch a new partnership focused on developing mangrove projects in Ghana.
What’s next?
We’ll continue driving out emissions across scopes 1 and 2. The aim is to reduce our emissions intensity as much as possible, even beyond our 98 % reduction target.
Key information
Partnerships
Our decarbonisation efforts are guided by collaboration with world-leading climate NGOs:
- Science Based Targets initiative
- EV100, the Climate Group
- Energy Transitions Commission
- We Mean Business Coalition
International frameworks
Our climate strategy builds on global best practice standards and the 1.5 °C pathway, as outlined by climate science:
- The Paris Agreement
- Science Based Targets initiative: Corporate Net-Zero Standard
- Greenhouse Gas Protocol
- IPCC Sixth Assessment Report
- CDP climate change questionnaire
Governance
Accountability lies with our Chief Operating Officer and heads of regions.This programme contributes towards the following Sustainable Development Goal:
