Danish firm, Ørsted aims to become the first carbon neutral energy supplier by 2025 by ending its use of coal.
Ørsted has put targets in place to phase out the use of coal by 2024 and replace it with 20GW of onshore and offshore capacity by 2025 – making Ørsted the first major energy firm to become carbon neutral – including its full operations and generation of energy.
Ørsted previously set targets which aim to reduce the emissions of its supply chain by 50% by 2032 and to become carbon neutral across its entire carbon footprint by 2040. This new target is the next step in working towards the company’s long term environmental goals.
The plan follows on from the firm’s pledge to invest £22.5bn in green energy sources.
Phasing out coal would reduce Ørsted’s emissions by at least 98% and the supplier will look at ways to reduce emissions beyond that figure to achieve carbon zero status.
One possibility to further reduce emissions would be to replace its existing fleet with electric vehicles so the firm has no reliance on fossil fuels.
Henrik Poulsen, CEO of Ørsted said: “We’ve come very far in reducing our emissions and Ørsted is more than two decades ahead of what is required by science to limit global warming to 1.5°C. We’ve now decided to take an additional step by making Ørsted a carbon neutral company already by 2025.”
“It’ll be challenging to reach a carbon neutral footprint by 2040, and it’ll require significant innovation in all parts of our supply chain. Many of the green technologies to be used to decarbonise our supply chain exist but they’re not yet cost competitive. With the 2040 target, we want to help drive the necessary innovation forward to mature the green technologies in the industries that supply to us.”
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