By Rod Walton, EnergyTech Senior Editor
The move to Net Zero will be a Net Gain for companies around the world, but fulfilling that goal requires key investment and protection of those most vulnerable, according to a new report and call to action involving both clean energy advocates and a legacy fossil fuels producer.
The culmination of months of study and research into workable methods, “The Just Energy Transition: A Framework for Company Action” offers a framework that its creators say will help lead the business world in making an equitable pathway as it commits to decarbonization.
The Council for Inclusive Capitalism, a group including business leaders from across the world and sectors, worked on the Just Energy Transition initiative along with the Boston Consulting Group and leading energy producer bp (formerly British Petroleum). The partners consulted with the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in helping craft the environmental and social justice guidance shown in the report.
The report includes four pillars that companies can adopt to foster a net-zero game plan, but also plans to include a resource hub which can help company leaders make informed and beneficial decisions guiding the path to net-zero. Those pillars call for supporting universal access to energy, evolving the workforce toward low and zero-carbon outcomes, building community resilience (also a key energy concern for mission critical services) and fostering collaboration and transparency.
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Climate change scientists agree that manmade carbon emissions are contributing to a warming planet and having devastating impacts on weather patterns. The damages from those events are costing trillions of dollars, but a decarbonized energy transition also will cost trillions and perhaps threaten access to energy in the developing world and poor regions of the developed nations.
bp’s history traditionally is focused on oil and gas development globally, but the company is embracing lower carbon initiatives and investing in clean energy technologies of late.
"There will be no energy transition unless it is just," said Bernard Looney, CEO of bp. "We must ensure that workers and communities do not lose out as we strive to help our planet. We must take everyone with us. That is why developing this framework made sense to us at bp. We want a transition that ensures no one is left behind."
The Just Energy Transition creators also worked with Climate Action 100+ and the World Benchmarking Alliance in crafting the methodologies within the report.
Many of the member companies in the Council for Inclusive Capitalism announced their own commitments to a net zero future within the report. Many of those are general goals, although some energy transition promises are part of the framework.
Asian energy firm ACEN is committing to protecting indigenous and vulnerable populations which could be impacted by new project developments and operations. Exploration and refinding firm Reliance Industries will invest about $2 billion to develop new energy infrastructure and technologies.
bp’s new Regions, Cities and Solutions team will focus on partnering with 10 to 15 cities and companies in three industrial sectors to reach and benefit from decarbonization goals. Multi-energy producer Repsol also committed to social investment projects while moving toward net-zero emissions goals by 2050.
Philippines-based multi-sector conglomerate Ayala Corp. will divest of all its thermal plants as it aims for net-zero gashouse gas emissions by 2050. The last coal-fired plant would be shuttered in four years, according to the company’s promise.
(Rod Walton, senior editor for EnergyTech, is a 14-year veteran of covering the energy industry both as a newspaper and trade journalist. He can reached at [email protected]).
