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. In late January 2020, we announced our commitment to exit coal-fired power generation in Germany by 2038 at the latest. We took this big step further in March by committing to make our power generation portfolio in Europe carbon neutral by 2035. Both bold commitments are part of a fundamental strategic reorientation focusing on a secure and climate- friendlier energy supply.

21

% reduction in Scope 1 CO₂

In 2019, our direct carbon emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels for power and heat generation (operational control approach) fell by 21% to 47 million metric tons (2018: 59.5 million metric tons).

474

g CO2/kWh carbon intensity in 2019

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 our European power generation portfolio by 2035
Maintain a group-wide carbon intensity threshold of 500g of CO2 per kilowatt-hour (on average) through 2020
Conduct, by 2022, at least 20 projects whose aims include decarbonization

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.

12

Decarbonization projects are already underway

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.

34.3

We own and operate 34.3 GW of generating capacity in Europe and Russia. This fleet is highly efficient, flexible, and diversified.

Our generation fleet’s reliability

79.1%

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 79.1% in 2019, which was roughly unchanged from 2018.