How do we harness the power of scale to meet 2030 climate goals?

23 September 2019

At the landmark UN Climate Action Summit, energy company Ørsted made it clear that the world must build green energy faster and at scale to halve carbon emissions by 2030 and limit global warming to 1.5°C.

 

UN Secretary General António Guterres clearly stated the agenda of the Summit when he said: “I want to hear about how we are going to stop the increase in emissions by 2020, and dramatically reduce emissions to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century.”

To do so, governments must enhance plans to reduce their countries’ carbon emissions and progress climate goals, while businesses must rapidly remove emissions across their operations and deliver sustainable solutions to consumers.

Rapid shift to green energy

For Ørsted, a rapid global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is fundamental to reducing carbon emissions in half by 2030 and limiting global warming below 1.5°C.

Renewable energy from solar
and wind energy is now built at
scale and outcompetes fossil fuels on price in most markets

Fillip Engel, Vice president for Sustainability, Public Affairs and Branding at Ørsted
“But the transition from fossil fuels to renewables needs to happen much faster to stay within 1.5°C of warming and meet the world’s growing energy needs,” says Filip Engel.
To accelerate the transition, governments must set ambitious and stable energy policies that enable companies to invest in renewable energy generation at large scale. This helps to foster innovation and supply chain efficiencies, which further drives down costs. That is the power of scale.

The experience of the offshore wind sector shows the impact of scaling-up green energy technologies. As the industry leader, Ørsted has helped reduce the cost of offshore wind by more than 60% since 2014. In Europe, it is now cheaper to build offshore wind, than new built coal or gas fired power plants and nuclear plants1. In just the past decade, offshore wind has gone from a niche to a global, rapidly growing technology.

“At the same time, the world must stop building new coal plants to have a realistic chance of halving emissions towards 2030, and not undermine the green energy transition,” says Engel. For its part, Ørsted has cut coal consumption by 81% since 2006 and will completely stop using coal by the end of 2022. That is 27 years ahead of what is needed by the energy sector2.

Read more about the benefits of the green energy transition in this Ørsted blog post for The Climate Group.
 
Two people wearing bike helmets cycling along the side of a river.

Our investments in green energy bring tangible benefits to society

In Ørsted, our investments have helped power millions of people with green energy, fight climate change, and boost economic growth and job creation.