Almost 4 years after the adoption of the Paris Agreement, President of France Emmanuel Macron organized on March 14th in Nairobi (Kenya) the first regional edition of the One Planet Summit, co-chaired with Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, the President of the Republic of Kenya. This High-Level session gathered Heads of State and Ministers heading national delegation to UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) as well as representatives of the finance and the business sectors, local governments, civil society, and youth. The session tackled two main issues: promoting renewable energy and fostering resilience, adaptation and biodiversity.
Schneider Electric executives took part in the summit and participated in many side events happening around it. At this occasion the Group accelerated its ambition and commitments for climate notably by helping its customer to save 100 M tons of CO2 emissions thanks to cleantech solutions. According to a recent study led by Schneider Electric in partnership with GreenBiz media, companies with public energy and/or sustainability goals see advantages. According to it, more than 50% of companies that have set public goals are more likely to adopt innovative solutions, are more successful in securing project funds, and are more likely to have greater results.
Gilles Vermot Desroches, Sustainability Senior VP at Schneider Electric said: "The creation of economic opportunities, jobs and innovation are central to the concerns of the One Planet coalition. To bring about this paradigm shift, we can re- affirm our responsibility in the face of climate change and taking measures to account for climate, social and environmental risks in their business including the most vulnerable population”.
Democratizing technology to unleash the potential of job creation
Providing electricity using renewables to provide electricity to the 1 billion people worldwide without energy access has the potential to create millions of good jobs, however despite increasing demand, a shortage of the skilled workforce needed to deliver electricity access is large and growing. In fact, it is projected that by 2030 there will still be 674 million people without access to energy. It is for this reason that the United Nations have established Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) as a key initiative for ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. Schneider Electric advocates that the goal can be attained if the right combination of technologies, modernized regulatory and financial business models, and local training is implemented.
Schneider Electric has committed to train 1 million solar technicians by the year 2025 and is also supporting ground-breaking research on the job creation potential from energy access through the Powering Jobs initiative.
At the occasion of the One Planet Summit, the company presented a document about How New Regulatory, Financial and Technology Bold Ideas Can Grow Microgrid-driven Access to Energy. According to the findings of this document, Energy is a basis of economic development and opens new doors that facilitate access to healthcare, agriculture and better overall living conditions. From a business perspective, increased standards of living are economic drivers that facilitate the conversion of economically disadvantaged populations into large pools of new customers and consumers. Read more: https://www.schneider-electric.com/en/about-us/sustainability/access-to-energy/
Schneider Electric’ evolution since the last One Planet Summit in Paris on the 10 commitments took at the occasion of COP21
| 2015 – 2030 commitments | Completion 2015–2017(expected projection) | |
| 1 | Quantify the carbon impact of 100% of its major customer projects (2015–2017) | 100% + new ambition to save 100MTCO2 on our customer’s end thanks to our offers by 2020 |
| 2 | Design 100% of new products and services in line with Schneider Electric ecoDesign Way™ and generate 75% of product revenue with Green Premium™ (2015–2017) | ecoDesign Way: 100%Green Premium: 80.1% end 2017, + new Green Premium offer in 2018 covering 45.7% of product sales (target 2020 = 75%) |
| 3 | Avoid 120,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions by implementing “end-of-life” product services in compliance with the principles of the circular economy (2015–2017) | + 160,000t of CO2, new ambition 2020 to avoid 100 KT of primary resources consumption |
| 4 | Facilitate access to lighting and communications for 50 million people at the bottom of the pyramid within 10 years through low-carbon solutions (2015–2025) | 23 million people |
| 5 | Build micro-grids to improve flexible usage and reduce impacts | In progress |
| 6 | Offer SF6 gas alternatives within 5 years (2015–2020) and no longer use SF6 gas in Schneider Electric products within 10 years (2015–2025) | In progress and ahead of scheduleReduction of SF6 leaks from 1.76% in 2010 to 0.38% in 2015 and 0.26% in 2018 |
| 7 | Reduce Schneider Electric’s energy intensity by 3.5% annually (2015 and beyond) | 10% 2015-2017, renewed target 2018-2020 |
| 8 | Cut CO2 emissions from transportation by 3.5% annually (2015 and beyond) | 10.3% 2015-2017, renewed ambition 2018-2020 |
| 9 | Invest €10 billion in innovation and R&D for sustainable development over the next 10 years (2015–2025) | + €3.5 billion |
| 10 | Issue a “climate” bond to finance low-carbon R&D | Issued in October 2015 |