Customers are looking to increasingly take ownership of their consumption, and local communities of their energy policy. These new expectations are forcing energy producers to come up with new solutions and new, more decentralised models, facilitated by innovations in telecommunications and digital technologies and the emergence of new uses, including electric vehicles.

The electricity sector is thus changing more than ever, at the centre of medium- and long-term societal and technological trends.

EDF group has therefore established its business model and its CAP 2030 strategic priorities in response to this context.

1.3.2 EDF group’s climate strategy

EDF has proposed to its shareholders at the next General Meeting to be held on 7 May 2020 to adopt a “raison d’être”. Thus, EDF’s raison d’être would be to “to build a net zero energy future with electricity and innovative solutions and services, to help save the planet and drive wellbeing and economic development”.

In line with this raison d’être, EDF’s ambition is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 thanks to virtually zero direct emissions, a reduction in indirect emissions that is as significant as possible within the framework of national policies, and offsetting residual emissions by compensation through negative-emission projects. To this end, EDF aims to move away from coal-fired power generation by 2030 in all geographical areas. EDF’s raison d’être also reinforces its ambition to develop solutions in France And internationally so that everyone can play a part in the energy transition.

The EDF group’s climate strategy is based on three levers: mitigation, adaptation and transformation.

Mitigation: By joining the “Business Ambition for 1.5 degrees” coalition on 26 February 2020, alongside 200 other companies worldwide, the EDF group is demonstrating its ambition on climate issues by setting its greenhouse gas emission reduction trajectories so that they respond to a rise in temperatures limited to 1.5degrees, and is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050. It is also committed to obtaining the Science Based Target initiative certification, with a reduction in the Group’s direct emissions raised from 40 to 50% by 2030⁽¹⁾ and the desire to set, for the first time in 2020, a commitment to reduce indirect emissions (Scope 3). To Achieve this, the EDF group is relying on its generation, already 90% decarbonised thanks to nuclear and hydropower⁽²⁾, and aims to move away from coal-based generation by 2030 with, in particular, the closure of the last plants running exclusively on coal by 2022 in France, and in the United Kingdom by 2024⁽³⁾.

The Group is investing massively in the development of renewable energies in France And worldwide⁽⁴⁾, with a target of doubling installed renewable energy capacity between 2014 and 2030 to reach 50GWe by 2030.

Adaptation: EDF group is implementing a strategy to adapt all its activities to the impacts of climate change in order to make its existing facilities less sensitive and more resilient to increasingly frequent extreme weather events (heat waves, droughts, storms, floods, etc.), as well as to incorporate long-term climate change (average temperatures, sea levels, etc.) into the design of new facilities, particularly those with a lifespan of over 40 years, such as hydroelectric and nuclear plants.

Transformation: EDF group is expanding its activities to enable local areas to achieve carbon neutrality: promotion of the increased use of electricity, investment in innovation and R&D, development of energy services, solar plan, support for shifting buses to electric power, electric mobility plan, smart cities, smart meters, storage plan, new business and new commercial offers. Because energy transition will be successful only if it is fair and solidarity-based, EDF group helps its customers to consume more efficiently, combats fuel poverty and works for climate-friendly laws.

EDF group’s climate strategy is headed by the Group Senior Executive Vice-President In charge of Innovation, Corporate Responsibility and Strategy, who is a member of the Group’s Executive Committee.

1.3.3 Priorities of the CAP 2030 strategy

For EDF, the fight against climate change is based on two levers: energy efficiency and energy decarbonisation. This conviction drives our strategy, which focuses on three priorities:

• proximity to customers and local communities;
• very low-carbon generation by rebalancing the mix between nuclear and renewable energy;
• international expansion.

The Group, a producer of low-carbon electric power, develops solutions that enable everyone, at their own level, to play a role in the energy transition and promotes its low-carbon model internationally. These goals are pursued through three major plans and a strategic work programme (some twenty strategic projects managed at the Executive Committee level are being carried out and concretely implement each of the three strategic priorities):

• through the electric mobility plan, launched in October 2018, EDF aims to be the leading supplier of energy for electric vehicles in France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Belgium, with an overall market share target of 30%. It also aspires to be the leading operator of charging stations in these countries and the European Leader in smart charging. In 2022, EDF aims to supply 600,000 electric vehicles with electric power, deploy 75,000 charging stations, provide its customers in Europe access to 250,000 interoperable charging stations and, by 2020, operate 4,000 smart charging stations. Today, EDF assists local authorities in deploying electric mobility solutions on a wide scale;
• storage is the key to stabilising the frequency of the grid, using hydroelectric pumping stations and giga-batteries, or to manage micro-grids in isolated areas without access to the grid. The electricity storage plan, launched in March 2018, provides for the development of 10GW of new storage facilities in the world by 2035, increasing the Group’s storage capacity by then to 15GW;
• through its solar plan, EDF aspires to become the leader in solar photovoltaic energy in France with a 30% market share of the sector between 2020 and 2035. EDF Renewables operates 2GW of gross installed capacity in France, of which nearly 230 MWp of gross installed solar capacity. To meet these objectives,EDF is mobilised to locate available land and make targeted acquisitions. In 2019, the company acquired the Luxel group, an independent solar energy players in France, which holds a portfolio of one gigawatt peak (1GWp), consisting of wind farms already in operation and projects ready to be built or underdevelopment.

This goal will also be achieved through a transformation programme based on simplification, innovation and digital technology, accountability and performance, human ambition and skills.

In connection with CAP 2030, EDF group has also made a commitment to six Corporate Social Responsibility Goals (see section 3.1 “EDF, a responsible company”).

(1) See section 3.2.1.1.1 “EDF group’s ambition”.
(2) See section 1.1 “Key figures”.
(3) See section 1.4.1.4.2 “Issues relating to thermal generation” – § “Coal-fired fleet in transition” and section 1.4.5.1.1 “Strategy – Overview”.
(4) See section 1.3.4.2 “Investment programme”.