All EDF group power plants currently under construction (including Hinkley Point C and Flammanville 3) have been designed taking into account the most recent climate scenarios; in particular, this has involved revising the rise in sea levels upwards in these projects.
Météo-France ranked 2019 as the third warmest year in France since the start of the twentieth century, with two exceptionally severe (but relatively short) heatwaves in the summer (at the end of June and July). These heatwaves resulted in operating losses of 1.4TWh in the nuclear fleet (compared to 2.7TWh in 2018) as a result of having to comply with legislation covering river temperatures and low water levels in these rivers. For the first time, a coastal power plant was also briefly halted to comply with the maximum threshold temperature for cooling water discharged into the sea.
To increase resilience to extreme weather events and the risks relating to a huge influx of water into reservoirs, EDF group has developed and installed innovative technology known as the Piano Key Weir (PKWeir) on nine of its hydropower infrastructures. This technology allows much more water to be released without increasing the size of the dam. EDF received an award recognising this innovation in the field of adaptation to climate change at the COP 21 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.
In 2019 EDF carried out spillway recalibration works on the La Palisse sur la Loire dams (Ardèche), raising the abutments and reinforcing downstream scour protection, as well as works on the Sainte-Marguerite dam on the Chassezac (Lozère and Ardèche), installing active truss rods to reinforce the dam against high water levels.
Another example of how EDF group is adapting its hydropower fleet to climate change is the work done in 2006 to raise the Les Bois reservoir water intake in the Mont Blanc massif by several metres, thus taking into account and anticipating the shrinkage of France’s largest glacier, the Mer de Glace.
In the aftermath of the 1999 storms, distribution network manager Enedis set up the Electricity Rapid Intervention Force (Force d’intervention rapide électricité, FIRE) enabling resources and staff to be redeployed nationwide to restore power as quickly as possible. FIRE is one of EDF group’s key measures to respond to extreme weather risks. FIRE currently has 2,500 technicians trained for crisis situations and 11 logistics storage facilities across the country, allowing the deployment of 2,000 generators.
2019 saw a large number of extreme weather incidents in France, including a succession of storms, in particular Storm Amélie, and torrential rainfall at the end of the year, resulting in a number of waterways in spate and flooding. FIRE was deployed seven times in 2019. FIRE intervened on seven occasions. Distribution network manager Enedis is also working on reducing the vulnerability of its 1.4 million kilometres of networks. This mainly consists in putting high-voltage overhead lines underground to avoid risks of falling trees, wind, snow and frost, beginning with the most exposed facilities. In 2019, 3,422km of high voltage overhead lines and 5,972km of low voltage overhead lines were removed. In the island regions, 95% of the new networks are built underground.
EDF group promotes public policies that encourage actual carbon reduction in the economy. Some examples of the recent positions taken publicly by the Group are listed below.
During the 2018 public debate on the multi-year energy programme (PPE), EDF’s stakeholder brief(2) clearly positioned combating climate change as a priority in its strategy. In August 2019, EDF joined French bosses’ union MEDEF’s “French businesses’ climate engagement”(3) initiative, reasserting the need for a collective change of direction, with the acceleration of innovation and R&D through investment in low-carbon solutions.
EDF group is particularly active in the EU, both in its own name (through its permanent office in Brussels) and through Eurelectric, the association representing the common interests of the electricity industry in Europe. EDF group’s commitment to a robust EU greenhouse gas trading system (EU ETS) and the Commission’s ambitious long-term climate and energy strategy (LTS) is recognised by all stakeholders, including NGOs such as InfluenceMap which, in 2019, ranked EDF as one of the companies most actively promoting climate issues in EU negotiations(4).
In 2018 the CEOs of EDF and EDISON signed the Eurelectric “Vision of the European electric industry”(5) declaration, in which the European electricity industry undertakes to pursue its efforts to become carbon-neutral well before 2050. This commitment was reasserted and supplemented in November 2019 by the Electrification Alliance coalition’s declaration “Powering a climate neutral, competitive and secure Europe”(6) (signed by EDF, EDF Energy and Luminus), of which the aim is to see electricity enabling the entire EU economy to become carbon neutral by 2050.
The EDF group has given its full support to the EU “Green Deal” presented by the European Commission in December 2019, aimed at revising the EU target for reducing greenhouse gases by 2030 upwards to “at least 50%, or even 55%” (compared to 1990 levels), and at having the goal of being climate neutral by 2050 included in EU law.
EDF supports the Carbon Pricing Leadership Group initiative: this brings together businesses, governments, academics, and NGOs to promote carbon pricing as a means of achieving a low-carbon world economy. At the Climate Action Summit organised by the Secretary General of the United Nations in September 2019, EDF group signed the CPLC’s appeal(7) recommending a price per tonne of carbon of $40-$80 by 2020 and $50-$100 by 2030, in line with the 2017 Stern-Stiglitz report, in order to enable countries to abide by the Paris Agreement.
EDF group has implemented specific governance to ensure that positions taken by the Group in formal consultations (e.g. with the European Commission) and during contributions to talks, expert appraisals, and French and EU thinktanks are consistent. EDF group’s major positions on climate strategy (revising the EU ETS, PPEs, etc.) are validated by an Steering Committee on relations with the public authorities chaired by the General Secretary and the Innovation, Corporate Social Responsibility and Strategy Director (DIRES). The three entities in charge of defending EDF group’s interests (its Public Affairs Department, European Affairs Department, and Regulation Department) are represented on this Committee. EDF group’s positions on climate strategy are drawn up in collaboration with the climate change anticipatory monitoring network, which brings together all of EDF group’s business units and entities (including EDF Energy, EDISON, and Luminus). This network is part of EDF group’s Sustainable Development anticipatory monitoring scheme.
(1) See section 3.2.1.1.1 “EDF group’s ambitions” and section 3.3.1.1.1 “Ethics and compliance”.
(2) https://ppe.debatpublic.fr/cahier-dacteur-ndeg43-edf.
(3) https://www.medef.com/fr/communique-de-presse/article/french-business-climate-pledge-les-entreprises-francaises-engagees-pour-le-climat.
(4) https://influencemap.org/site/data/000/391/IM_EUTradeGroups_May2019.pdf.
(5) https://www.eurelectric.org/media/2189/vision-of-the-european-electricity-industry-02-08-2018.pdf.
(6)https://www.eurelectric.org/electrification-alliance/.
(7) https://www.carbonpricingleadership.org/news/2019/9/19/business-leaders-call-for-long-term-stable-carbon-pricing-policies.
