Universal Registration Document 2020

3.1.3.3.3 More than €5.5 billion of lines of credit indexed on the Group’s corporate responsibility commitments

Since 2017, the Group has set up five lines of credit with their cost indexed on three Group climate commitment performance indicators: EDF group direct CO₂ emissions, automobile fleet electrification, and use of online energy use monitoring tools by itsFrench residential customers. In 2020, the EDF group and Standard Chartered Bank set up a €200 million renewable credit line, increasing all the renewable credit lines indexed on ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) criteria to more than €5.5 billion, i.e. approximately 52% of the Group’s total credit lines, demonstrating that sustainable finance tools are central to its financing strategy (see section 5.1.6.1.1.2 “Liquidity risk management”).

3.1.3.4 Commitment to ambitious climate policies

The EDF group promotes public policies that encourage actual carbon reduction in the economy. Some of the Group’s recent public positions and actions to raise general public awareness of climate change are presented below.

On a national level3.1.3.4.1

During the 2018 public debate on the multi-year energy programme (PPE or Programmation pluriannuelle de l’énergie), EDF’s stakeholder brief⁽¹⁾ clearly positioned combating climate change as a priority in its strategy⁽²⁾. In August 2019, EDF joined the French employer federation 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.

3.1.3.4.2 On a European level

The 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. The EDF group’s commitment to a robust EU greenhouse gas trading system and the Commission’s ambitious long-term climate and energy strategy is recognised by all stakeholders, including NGOs such as InfluenceMap⁽⁴⁾ which has repeatedly ranked EDF as one of the companies most actively promoting climate issues in EU negotiations.

The EDF group fully supports the European “Green Deal” presented by the European Commission in December 2019 and the “Climate Law” bill published in April 2020 designed to add the 2050 climate neutrality goal to European law.

In September 2020 the EDF group signed, with more than 150 businesses and investors worldwide, an open letter⁽⁵⁾ calling on the President of the European Commission and the members of the European Council to increase the European Union’s greenhouse gas reduction goal (set in 2014 at -40% compared to the 1990 level) to a reduction goal of at least 55%. This initiative was coordinated by the European think tank Corporate Leaders Groups (CLG Europe) of which the EDF group is a member.

In November 2020, as part of a conference⁽⁶⁾ organised by IEA entitled “The Role of Low-Carbon Electricity to reach Paris Goals”, Jean-Bernard Levy, Chairman & CEO of EDF, came out in favour of a carbon price of at least €50/t and even €100/t to enable the European greenhouse gas market to play its role as a price signal and trigger fundamental decisions by European electricity producers and major firms to achieve a carbon-free economy.

3.1.3.4.3 On an international level

EDF supports the Carbon Pricing Leadership Group initiative that brings together businesses, governments, academics, and NGOs to promote carbon pricing as a means of achieving a carbon-free world economy. At the Climate Action Summit organised by the Secretary General of the United Nations in September 2019, the 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.

In February 2020, the EDF group joined the “Business Ambition for 1.5 degrees: our only future” initiative launched by the United Nations Global Compact “We Mean Business and Science Based Target Initiative” (see section 3.1.1.1.1 “Achieving carbon neutrality by 2050”).

3.1.3.4.4 Acting in a consistent manner with external stakeholders

The EDF group set up specific governance to ensure the consistency of the positions promoted by the Group. All the Group’s key positions on climate issues are approved by the Public Authorities Relations Management Committee. This Committee, co-chaired by the General Secretary and the Group Senior Executive Vice-President in charge of Innovation, Corporate Social Responsibility and Strategy, meets every week and features, among others, the Public Affairs Division, the European Affairs Division, the Regulation Division, and the Legal Affairs Division. The SEVP, Executive Coordination and Governmental Relations, takes the role of Secretary.

Responses to public calls for tender and EDF group 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 its subsidiaries). This network is part of the Group’s Sustainable Development anticipatory monitoring scheme. The EDF group’s responses to public calls for tender (particularly if they are organised by the European Commission) are made public. The key points of the Group’s positions are released through corporate social networks (LinkedIn and Twitter).

The EDF group makes sure not to support initiatives promoting positions not in line with its own aims in terms of combating climate change. EDF ceased to be a member of Business Europe on 1 November 2020.

3.1.3.4.5 Raising awareness and providing information

In 2019, EDF launched the first International Climate & Public Opinion MonitoringCentre (see section 3.5.1 “Listening and understanding issues”)⁽⁸⁾. The 2020 results demonstrate that, in spite of the coronavirus crisis, climate issues remain central to the concerns of the world’s populations.

3.1.3.5 Involvement of employees and executive officers in carbon neutrality

The EDF group implements actions to enable all its employees and corporate officers to adopt the Group’s raison d’être and climate commitments. These actions involve employee training⁽⁹⁾, compensation and collective intelligence.