Climate action and security of supply

Climate change is one of the world’s biggest challenges and one of our company’s most material issues.

Urgent, concerted action worldwide will be necessary to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees centigrade. It’s a big challenge for an energy company like us. The energy industry, which is among the biggest carbon emitters, will need to play an important role in the transition to a carbon neutral future.

Greenhouse gas emissions

Our decarbonization strategy: Empower Energy Evolution. Decarbonization is at the top of our agenda: for the power we produce, the services we provide, and the commodities we trade. In March 2020, Uniper announced that we aim for our power generation business in Europe to be carbon-neutral by 2035. This target also includes Scope 2 carbon emissions for reporting from 2021 (previously Scope 1 emissions only). Also, we intend for our power generation business in Europe to reduce its carbon emissions by more than 50% by 2030 compared to a 2019 baseline.

9.4

% reduction in Scope 1 CO₂

In 2020, our direct carbon emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels for power and heat generation (operational control approach) fell by 9.4% to 42.6 million metric tons (2019: 47.0 million metric tons).

468

g CO2/kWh carbon intensity on average from 2018 to 2020

We set a Group-wide annual average carbon intensity threshold to remain below 500 grams of carbon dioxide per kWh for the period 2018 to 2020.

Our strategic plan

Commitments

Monitor and optimize the carbon intensity of Uniper’s generation portfolio
Make decarbonization activities a focus area for innovation
Promote lower-carbon fuels for power generation

Targets

Achieve carbon neutrality for the Uniper Group by 2050
Achieve carbon neutrality for our European power generation portfolio by 2035 and a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 (using 2019 as a baseline)
Conduct, by 2022, at least 20 projects whose aims include decarbonization
Maintain a group-wide carbon intensity threshold of 500g of CO2 per kilowatt-hour (on average) through 2020

Innovations for a low-carbon future

Innovation and cutting-edge technologies are crucial to our ability to Empower Energy Evolution. They make our existing businesses more efficient, competitive, and sustainable. Uniper develops innovative, scalable business models in a variety of areas. Some of them – like a flexible power supply, utility-scale batteries, and other new storage technologies – demonstrably enhance the energy system’s ability to add more renewable energy sources while maintaining system stability. Although crucial to the success of the energy transition, they’re incremental in nature: they’ll help the energy transition do what it’s already doing even better. Other technologies like green hydrogen and carbon recycling have the potential to be truly game-changing. Because they can do something special: go a long way towards making emission- heavy but hard-to-decarbonize industries – particularly chemicals, and air, maritime, and heavy-road transport – much cleaner.

Our innovation strategy reflects the three pivotal trends that are transforming the energy industry: decarbonization, the decentralization of energy generation and supply, and digitalization.

16

Decarbonization projects were already underway at end of 2020

We’ve set a target of conducting, by 2022, at least 20 projects, the main aim of which include decarbonization.

Our generation fleet for a secure energy supply

A secure and reliable supply of energy is essential for the functioning of society and a competitive economy. Uniper’s priority is to provide a secure, affordable, and reliable supply of power, gas, and heat to its customers, while simultaneously making this energy progressively climate-friendlier.

35.4

We own and operate 35.4 GW of generating capacity in Europe and Russia. This fleet is highly efficient, flexible, and diversified.

Our generation fleet’s reliability

78.4%

Average asset availability

Uniper’s key performance indicator for supply reliability is average asset availability. Our power generation fleets in Europe and Russia had an average asset availability of 78.4% in 2020, which was slightly lower from 2019 of 79.1%.