The global climate agreement reached at the Paris Climate Change Conference will accelerate energy system transformation and create new business opportunities.The ambitious, long-term goal of the agreement signed by 196 countries is to limit the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C and even to 1.5 °C. This requires a significant reduction in emissions by all areas of society, but especially in energy production and energy use, which accounts for two thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions. The goal of the agreement is to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible.
Fortum actively involved in the discussion
We are actively contributing and participating in discussions and events related to the climate agreement during autumn.
In Finland we participated on September 25th in the "Ilmastosopimus. Nyt." event [in English: Climate agreement. Now.], organised by the Ministry of the Environment that focused on Finland's views for the Paris climate convention.
Birgitta Resvik, Head of Corporate Relations, Sweden, participated on September 21st in a seminar in Sweden called "Vad är näringslivets roll inför klimatmötet i Paris?"
Kari Kankaanpää, Senior manager in the Corporate Relations unit presented the energy industry viewpoint in the roundtable discussion "Forests and land use in climate negotiations", organized by the Finnish Ministry of the Environment on the 23rd of September.
Fortum, in cooperation with the Finnish Embassy and the French-Finnish Chamber of Commerce, hosted a high-level energy and climate roundtable debate in Paris on October 19th. Secretary General of the Finnish Meteorological Institute and Member of Fortum Board Petteri Taalas presented the latest scientific basis for the climate negotiations.
"Although we now have commitments by almost 150 countries covering almost 90% of global emissions, the window of opportunity to reach the two-degree target seems to be closing. The existing pledges are expected to result in a global temperature rise of about 3°C. Further negotiations and actions are absolutely necessary," he emphasised.
Fortum's Chief Economist Simon-Erik Ollus considered climate change mitigation as a leadership issue. He demanded brave commitments by the politicians. The energy sector's largest uncertainty is the missing broad political commitment and inconsistency in policy making. Investors and customers need to be willing to pay for clean energy.
During the climate convention, our Chief Technology Officer Heli Antila will participated in an event on December 8–9th, organised by The New York Times. She was also a panelist in a COP21 side event on Green Growth organised by Sitra.
Fortum participated in the Paris COP21 during 7th–11th of December in the delegation of EURELECTRIC, the association of the electricity industry in Europe.