exchemist
Veteran Member
Interesting piece in yesterday's Financial Times, explaining that many corporations are now signing long term agreements to buy electricity from proposed renewable generation projects, thus providing the projects with the commercial confidence to invest. Apparently in Europe, over 20% of renewable power projects are now being financed in this way, without any government involvement or subsidy.
Examples of companies participating in this include Holcim, (cement) and Alcoa (aluminium), which are in notoriously energy-intensive industries, so very much in the spotlight on CO2 emissions. But I was intrigued to see also Prada and Ferragamo, the fashion houses! I don't know to what extent they control the sources of power used by the textile producers they contract with, but perhaps they are now putting some renewable requirements into their supply contracts, just as when I worked for Shell, we used to put health, safety and environmental standards into all our contracts with suppliers.
The motives for this are apparently quite hard-nosed. These companies want stable and competitive energy prices. Recent events have shown that fossil fuel-based power is unable to guarantee this. So it's not just "green-washing" or paying lip service to some "woke" agenda, as some of the American backwoodsmen on this forum imagine. It's based on real economics. Though I have no doubt the fashion houses will make the most of it in building their brand image.
According to the article, 44% of the top 9,000 globally listed companies have now set decarbonisation targets.
Yet another hopeful sign that addressing climate change is becoming embedded in society, regardless of the prevarication we see so depressingly often, from certain recalcitrant or pusillanimous politicians and political parties. (Here's looking at you, Rishi Sunak, and you, US Repubicans [sic]
).
Examples of companies participating in this include Holcim, (cement) and Alcoa (aluminium), which are in notoriously energy-intensive industries, so very much in the spotlight on CO2 emissions. But I was intrigued to see also Prada and Ferragamo, the fashion houses! I don't know to what extent they control the sources of power used by the textile producers they contract with, but perhaps they are now putting some renewable requirements into their supply contracts, just as when I worked for Shell, we used to put health, safety and environmental standards into all our contracts with suppliers.
The motives for this are apparently quite hard-nosed. These companies want stable and competitive energy prices. Recent events have shown that fossil fuel-based power is unable to guarantee this. So it's not just "green-washing" or paying lip service to some "woke" agenda, as some of the American backwoodsmen on this forum imagine. It's based on real economics. Though I have no doubt the fashion houses will make the most of it in building their brand image.
According to the article, 44% of the top 9,000 globally listed companies have now set decarbonisation targets.
Yet another hopeful sign that addressing climate change is becoming embedded in society, regardless of the prevarication we see so depressingly often, from certain recalcitrant or pusillanimous politicians and political parties. (Here's looking at you, Rishi Sunak, and you, US Repubicans [sic]
).
