Ørsted to become carbon neutral by 2025

During the last 10 years, Ørsted has transformed from a company with fossil fuels at the core of its business to a pure-play renewables company.

Ørsted has installed one third of all offshore wind turbines globally. By driving out carbon emissions from its energy generation and operations, the company has reduced its carbon emissions by 86% compared to 2006.

Ørsted states that the most important levers that will get the company to carbon neutrality are a complete phase-out of coal by 2023 and the installation of 20 GW of offshore and onshore wind by 2025, supported by a commitment to invest DKK200 billion in green energy in the period 2019-2025.

Ørsted aims to continue the phase-out of fossil fuels and build-out of green energy, Ørsted will see its emissions reduced by at least 98% by 2025.

The remaining emissions beyond 98% come from a variety of sources, where emissions are harder to abate. Ørsted will strive to push the reduction beyond 98% and look for solutions to reduce the remaining emissions. One such solution is Ørsted's decision to stop buying or leasing fossil-fuelled cars as of 2021 and make its entire car fleet electric by 2025.

Should offsetting become necessary, Ørsted will only engage with projects that are verified, measurable and additional, meaning that the carbon removal would not have happened without Ørsted's engagement.

As Ørsted is now only a few years away from net-zero energy generation, the company has decided to embark on the next phase in its decarbonisation journey, which is to address the carbon emissions beyond its own walls and align these emissions with the 1.5ºC pathway. These emissions come from energy trading and from the supply chain.

The company has committed to reducing the emissions that take place outside of Ørsted, but are still linked to its activities, with 50% by 2032 compared to 2018. Ørsted now also sets a target to achieve carbon neutrality across the company's entire carbon footprint by 2040, 10 years ahead of the global target for net-zero emissions as required by climate science to limit global warming to 1.5ºC.

To achieve a carbon neutral footprint, Ørsted will gradually phase out natural gas trading activities while increasing the green share of power traded. Furthermore, Ørsted will engage its suppliers to reduce carbon emissions from the manufacture and installation of renewable energy and encourage suppliers to set emission reduction targets aligned with climate science and to run their operations on green energy.

Ørsted's carbon emission reduction targets are science-based targets approved by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi). The initiative has preliminarily concluded that Ørsted's targets align with a 1.5°C trajectory, with SBTi's methodology to assess this alignment to be launched later in 2020.

Read the article online at: https://www.energyglobal.com/special-reports/30012020/rsted-to-become-carbon-neutral-by-2025/