Šéf ČEZ na klimatickém summitu v Paříži volal po reformě obchodování s emisními povolenkami

Zhruba 200 dní před klíčovým mezinárodním summitem OSN o klimatických změnách v Paříži probíhá ve stejné metropoli Business & Climate Summit 2015, kterého se aktivně účastní také generální ředitel Skupiny ČEZ Daniel Beneš. Na klimatickém fóru diskutují zástupci firem a vládní představitelé zemí EU o strategických rozhodnutích, která by měla umožnit přechod na nízkouhlíkovou ekonomiku.

Nadcházející říjnový klimatický summit OSN v Paříži bude pro vývoj v energetice klíčový. Mělo by se na něm rozhodnout, zda se k boji proti klimatickým změnám zavážou také další světové velmoci. „Klimatická dohoda na mezinárodní úrovni se zeměmi mimo EU je nezbytná pro nastavení férových závazků, které by ve finále podpořily konkurenceschopnost evropského průmyslu, jenž doplácí na vysoké ceny energií,“uvedl předseda představenstva ČEZ Daniel Beneš.

Šéf ČEZ hovořil jako první v rámci odpoledního jednání, na němž vystoupil, kromě zástupů dalších významných evropských firem včetně francouzské Arevy, také například norský ministr pro evropské ekonomické záležitosti Vidar Helgesen. Ústředním výzvou tohoto jednání i celého summitu bylo hledání takové cesty k nízkouhlíkové energetice, která dokáže zároveň zajistit i ekonomický růst.

„Skupina ČEZ se spolu s dalšími významnými evropskými energetikami kloní k tržním mechanismům namísto nesystémových dotací zvýhodňující jednu technologii na úkor jiné. Je důležité realizovat reformu trhu s emisními povolenkami tak, aby více motivoval firmy i státy k snižování emisí,“ uvedl předseda představenstva ČEZ Daniel Beneš. „EU učinila první krok k nápravě systému emisních povolenek, když schválila vytvoření tzv. tržní stabilizační rezervy. Aby však systém efektivně plnil svou funkci, potřebujeme strukturální reformu, jež zásadním způsobem posílí evropský trh s uhlíkem,“  doplnil Beneš a zdůraznil také nutnost propojení s uhlíkovými trhy mimo EU.

Daniel Beneš byl jediným řečníkem, jenž zastupoval společnost provozující uhelnou energetiku. Šéf ČEZ zmínil, že firma mezi lety 2005 – 2014 redukovala emise CO2 o 33 % a svůj emisní faktor výroby elektřiny za stejné období snížila o více než 25 %. Zároveň zdůraznil, že ČEZ se ve své strategii orientuje na decentralizovanou výrobu, úspory a nízkoemisní výrobu elektřiny z obnovitelných zdrojů a jádra. „Domníváme se, že budoucnost energetických systémů spočívá v decentralizované energetice a obnovitelných zdrojích a tento trend se snažíme následovat,“ řekl Beneš.

Vystoupení Dana Beneše, GŘ ČEZ, na Business & Climate Foru v Paříži, které otevřel francouzský prezident Holland a kterého se zúčastňuje několik stovek zástupců francouzského a mezinárodního businesu, byl úspěch.  Své vystoupení na Kulatém stolu prominentních mezinárodních CEO-řečníků, věnované aspektům Energie a Klimatu, kulminoval Dan Beneš prohlášením, že ČEZ dosáhne v roce 2050 “Zero-CO2” produkci elektřiny. Součástí této strategie bude i důležitá role decentralizované energetiky včetně OZE. Vystoupení Dana Beneše v Paříži bylo zprostředkováno českou větví WBCSD ve spolupráci s organizátory Fora.

François Hollande, president of France, has called for a “miracle” to happen later this year at a crunch climate change conference in Paris, saying this would be needed for a compromise to be reached on the future of limiting greenhouse gases that would involve both developed and developing countries.

He urged all countries to come up with commitments on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, ahead of the signing of a new global agreement by world governments later this year in Paris.

He ruefully acknowledged the difficulty of coming up with such an agreement. “We must have a consensus. If within our own country, that’s difficult, imagine what it’s like with 196 countries. A miracle!” He added he was confident it could be achieved.

For any agreement to work, he said, the role of businesses would be “key”. Invoking the foundation of the French republic, he said: “We need a revolution in business.”

President Hollande talked of the need for carbon sequestration, developing new clean technologies, and finding ways to be more energy efficient.

Business leaders from across the world, meeting in Paris for a preparatory conference before the UN convenes later this year, congratulated the French president and called for a strong international agreement on the climate.

But there were clear signs that a compromise will be hard to reach. The chief executive of Statoil, Elder Saetre, said a carbon price was needed to encourage companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But, as one of the few fossil fuel companies represented, he also vowed that his company, and others, would be producing oil and gas “for a long time”.

His views echoed those expressed by other fossil fuel companies, which have told the Guardian and their shareholders that they would continue to produce carbon-generating products for decades to come.

Businesses were meeting, under the auspices of the French government, to set out their aims ahead of the global conference in Paris this December, at which governments are to set out their commitments to limit greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2020, when current commitments run out.

This is seen as a crunch conference, because it will lay out the world’s response to climate change for decades to come, and could determine whether the world avoids the worst ravages of global warming, which are already being felt. On current projections, climate change could become irreversible and catastrophic if global emissions are not drastically cut.

Angel Gurria, the head of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said that the proposals on emissions so far set out by governments would not be sufficient to protect the world from warming of more than 2C above pre-industrial levels, the internationally-set benchmark for avoiding dangerous levels of climate change. “We are on a collision course with nature,” he warned.

Outside the conference, protestors called for businesses to be banned from the COP in Paris this December, calling oil companies in particular “part of the problem, not the solution”.

That sentiment was echoed by some participants. Peder Holk Nielsen, chief executive of Novozymes, a company that manufactures enzymes and has interests in biofuels, said: “Let’s be very clear on this. The oil companies will not help the world to switch to renewable energy – that will never happen. They are part of a system that protects the business they have. The only way the world gets more renewables is if bold politicians step up to it and mandate.”

Paul Polman, chief executive of Unilever, called on governments to set clear targets on emissions that he said would force companies to innovate to meet them. Pierre-André de Chalendar, chief executive of Saint-Gobain, told the conference the “best solution” to climate change was energy efficiency.

Christiana Figueres, the UN’s climate chief, who is coordinating the Paris conference, said that businesses should not be demonised. “It is not a question of demonising [companies],” she said. “In my book, this is not about confrontation. Quite to the contrary. This is about collaboration. If you’re thinking about confrontation, forget it! Because we’re not going to get there.”

But she also said: “We must be clear – there is no space for any new coal.”

She said: “The science is clear – global emissions need to swiftly peak as a prelude to a deep de-carbonisation of the global economy by the second half of the century. Many businesses know this and are planning for that future. It is time for the rest to come on board.”

May 21, 2015 1:42 pm

Coal and solar power executives clash at Paris climate conference

Pilita Clark in Paris

Tony Hayward, chairman of mining company Glencore, has clashed with wind and solar power executives who say renewable energy can replace coal in industrialising countries such as India and China.

Mr Hayward, whose company is the world’s largest exporter of power station coal, told a business and climate change meeting in Paris that people had to recognise it was simply “not possible” to remove coal from the energy mix in countries such as India.

“With the best will in the world, solar is not an answer to broad scale industrialisation,” he said, adding it was too intermittent to supply the steady, reliable power needed by an aluminium plant or a steel mill.

“Unless we can deal with this dilemma this debate goes nowhere,” he said.

His remarks prompted a sharp response from Kerry Adler, chief executive of North American solar group SkyPower who told him: “Solar is the new world. You’ve got to get used to it.”

Mr Adler said as renewable power storage costs fell, companies like his could easily supply large amounts of cheap, reliable power in countries such as India.

He was backed by José Manuel Entrecanales Domecq, chief executive of Spain’s Acciona group, a large wind power developer, who said it was “absolutely” possible for renewables to provide baseload electricity in emerging markets if electricity grids were properly integrated.

The Paris business meeting comes six months before the French capital hosts a UN conference where almost 200 countries are due to seal a global climate change pact.

The leaders of Germany and France said earlier this week they wanted to see a complete end to emissions from fossil fuels such as coal some time this century.

Oil and gas companies such as Norway’s Statoil say the first step should be switching from coal power to cleaner-burning gas.

But Mr Hayward said this was not possible in countries such as India, where a government official had recently told him that gas cost at least three times as much as coal and was more complicated to secure.

Coal companies, on the other hand, had told this official that with their fuel, “you can have it tomorrow and you can have as much as you want for as long as you want”, Mr Hayward said.

The answer, he said, was for wealthier countries to help industrialising nations replace old, more polluting coal power station technology with newer, cleaner systems.

Without such steps, the world would never achieve the reduction in emissions needed.

“Unless what we deploy allows China and India to complete their industrialisation in a different way to the way we industrialised then we are simply shifting the deck chairs on the Titanic,” he said.

Many executives at the Paris business meeting urged governments to introduce more carbon pricing systems, such as a carbon tax or emissions trading schemes.

World Bank climate envoy, Rachel Kyte, said China was looking at creating a national emissions trading system as early as 2016, which would overnight create the world’s biggest carbon market.

It would be “very interesting” to see how other countries reacted with China if this happened, she said.

But Mr Hayward said before talking about new carbon taxes, it would be sensible to end fossil fuel subsidies.

He added that efforts to put a price on carbon through schemes such as the EU’s emissions trading system had created a lot of problems.

The European system had helped to create the “mess” of a “dysfunctional” energy market and a “massive misallocation” of resources, he said.

Business & Climate Summit conclusions: towards a low-carbon society

• Business calls on policymakers to leverage public funds and private sector finance towards low-carbon assets; to introduce carefully designed, robust and predictable carbon pricing; and to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies.
• Business & Climate Summit, lasting two days, brought together 2000 international business leaders, policymakers and investors in Paris.
• The summit opened by François Hollande, President of the French Republic, and concluded with video-message from US Secretary of State, John Kerry and speech by French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius.

PARIS, May 21 – An unprecedented mobilisation of 25 worldwide business networks representing over 6.5 million companies from more than 130 countries pledged today to lead the global transition to a low-carbon, climate resilient economy. At the Business & Climate Summit, there was a recognition that leading businesses are already taking action to build the prosperous, lowcarbon economy of the future. In all sectors, business has developed solutions, continues to innovate and is preparing to accelerate the scale and pace of deployment. Science calls upon national and international policymakers to reach a global climate deal at this year’s United Nations’ COP 21 Summit in Paris that would see the emissions trajectory peaking around 2020 and globally achieve net zero emissions well before the end of the century whilst keeping cumulative carbon emissions within one trillion tonnes as required by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Business believes this objective is achievable and compatible with continued economic growth and human development if all actors work together in this urgent and long term climate battle. Welcoming the Business & Climate Summit, Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban KiMoon, said: “This is an important milestone on the way to the Paris climate conference in December. It shows that the engagement of the private sector that began at the Climate Summit in New York last September has continued. Business leaders are now in the vanguard of the movement to take climate action.”

Opening the Business & Climate Summit, François Hollande, President of the French Republic, said: “You must, here in Paris, make commitments, offer solutions and success will also be yours. Because if we take the expected actions, if we make the choices that are hoped for, I am sure it will have extremely positive consequences on economic actors, on future technologies, on employment and on growth.” Business leaders at the Business & Climate Summit made a number of calls to policymakers for more climate action and to introduce climate policies. Amongst these were: • Introduction of robust and effective carbon pricing mechanisms as a key component to gear investment and orient consumer behaviour towards low-carbon solutions and achieve global net emissions reduction at the least economic costs. The first goal is to boost energy efficiency. It also includes the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies to redirect consumption to clean energy sources. Such policies need to be carefully designed and implemented to avoid competitive distortions in some specific sectors. • The establishment of an alliance between business and governments leading to the integration of climate policies into the mainstream economy. This should include enhanced public-private dialogues at global and national level, backed by a commitment to raise ambition in line with developments in climate science. • A call for policymakers to leverage public funds and private sector finance, and to de-risk investment towards low-carbon assets, especially in developing countries. This should surpass the $100 billion per year pledged in Copenhagen in order to shift the trillions of dollars needed to build the low-carbon, climate-resilient economy. Ambitious and smart policies from government – both national and international – are required to help more companies take low-carbon solutions to scale. Most businesses can be winners if this transition to a low-carbon economy is made predictable by robust, long-term policies.

Paul Polman, Chief Executive Officer of Unilever, said: “When faced with the challenges of climate change, businesses should be part of the solution. Companies that have seized low-carbon opportunities are increasingly seeing rewards. To go further, we need a strong international climate agreement that sends a clear and credible signal to businesses that low-carbon policies will endure.” Business called for more ambition from national governments in their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) and announced that they will actively support leadership from policymakers who set clear frameworks to accelerate investment and deployment of climatefriendly solutions.

Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chief Executive and Chairman of Schneider Electric and Chairman of Global Compact France, said: “The difference between now and three years ago is that nobody in business really dares to say climate change is not happening. Companies have actually taken commitments on emissions reductions. With bold, clear and long-term climate policies to keep within the +2°C threshold, business will create growth, jobs and continuous innovation on the way to a prosperous low-carbon economy.” The Business & Climate Summit was initiated following the UN Secretary General’s call for the private sector to take a more active role in the world decarbonisation process at the UN Climate Summit in New York last year. As a midway point between that meeting in New York and COP 21 later this year in Paris, it marked a key moment for the business voice on climate action to be raised and heard by policymakers.

Terry McGraw, Chairman Emeritus of McGraw Hill Financial and Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce, said: “We hope the Business Climate Summit will be seen as a turning point for business in establishing an enhanced dialogue with national and international policymakers in the runup to COP21. We call for an ambitious global agreement at COP21 which works with business to speed emissions reductions and build climate resilience.” The Business & Climate Summit called on businesses to develop and implement their own sustainability strategies in line with science as described by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Businesses should set clear climate targets, develop innovative solutions and step up large scale partnerships to accelerate transformational technology development.

Peter Bakker, President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, said: “The Summit has shown the determination and readiness of business to develop solutions for climate change that mean better opportunities for all. Over 80 companies are now part of the Low Carbon Technology Partnerships initiative and more business leaders and investors are signing up every day to campaigns such as those led by We Mean Business to demonstrate their action on climate. The business world is scaling up action, fast.”

Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, CEO of Solvay and Chairman for energy & climate of French business associations AFEP and Cercle de l’Industrie, announced the launch of an initiative to mobilise international businesses for COP21: “Fifty nine chairmen and CEOs of global companies and seven national, European and global business organisations already support the ‘Business proposals for COP21’. We thank the COP presidency for having set up the proposed dialogue between business and governments. We are also aware of our key role as company leaders for taking sustainable investment decisions. We call on executives worldwide to join this initiative in the coming weeks.” Particular focus needs to be given to the developing world where funding mechanisms should be set up to fight poverty whilst leapfrogging towards a low-carbon development path. The Business & Climate Summit addressed some of the key climate issues impacting on the investment community as well as the business community. The climate change challenge will require a re-direction and mobilisation of traditional investment flows. Innovative mechanisms to leverage public finance and to use finance effectively in all economic sectors in developed and developing countries will be critical.

 Mats Andersson, Chief Executive Officer of Swedish National Government Pension Fund, AP4, said: “Putting a price on carbon is absolutely key: it will send the right signal to the market, the investors and the polluting companies. And at the same time it will reward the leaders who take climate change seriously. Last but not least, it will push more money into investments in renewables and green infrastructure.” The Business & Climate Summit, held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on May 20-21, brought together 2000 leading businesses and investors – 60% from outside France – with national and international policymakers to make the case that bold action on climate will ensure economic growth while limiting global temperature rise to less than +2°C.

Pierre-André de Chalendar, Chief Executive and Chairman of Saint-Gobain and Chairman of Entreprises pour l’Environnement-EPE, said: “This Summit is a first step to a large alliance of all actors that business needs and wants to build. We must continue to work together for this transition to a low-carbon society, to allow vulnerable populations to live in sustainable habitat and cities and to allow poorest countries to reach a low-carbon development.”

Concluding, Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said: “We have reached the turning point in making our response to climate change real, viable and inevitable. Organisations here, working with over six million companies, want to work with governments to build a clean, predictable and transformative path toward a safe and profitable future.”