No free rides

Published October 2024

Does the renewable energy industry deserve a free ride on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions? In her latest article, Everoze Partner Ellie van der Heijden has outlined why reducing GHG is challenging but important.

One of our core values at Everoze is ‘no free rides’. This is because we are an employee-owned organization with a flat hierarchy. We value everyone pulling together and sharing responsibility for business performance and we rely on being able to trust everyone to operate as responsible grown ups.

Here’s a question for you: Does the renewable energy industry deserve a free ride on GHG emissions? I’ve worked in renewables since 2008 in both developer and consultancy roles and have heard a huge range of opposing views.

Some would argue that we are already doing our bit. They would claim that the work that we do – ‘we’ being all of us in the renewable energy industry – is essential to the deployment of renewable energy and actively helps all of society to decarbonize. We are doing enough. It’s a reassuring thought, isn’t it? Let’s all give each other a pat on the back and carry on, no need to worry about our own GHG emissions. We get a free ride.

This view was more prevalent in the 2000s but remains surprisingly common today. In fact, when I’m undertaking ESG DD (environmental, social and governance due diligence) on renewable energy developers I rarely see any consideration paid to monitoring corporate GHG emissions, let alone minimizing them. When I ask why, the response that comes back is all too often that it is deemed unimportant because the work that we do is positive for the environment. This is not an argument that holds water.

Here are three reasons why:

1. We are setting an example

Firstly, there is an expectation from the public that we will behave in line with our actions. I’ve had conversations with friends from other professions who are shocked to hear that many renewable energy organizations don’t know what the carbon footprint of their work is, nor are they doing anything to reduce it. To hide our dirty laundry behind the good work we do can appear hypocritical. Do as I say and not as I do. It’s bad for the industry image and damages the essential trust and social license we need to deploy renewable energy at scale. It’s a Daily Mail headline in the making.

2. We can’t all piggyback on the same emissions savings

Secondly, not everyone can claim the GHG savings brought about as their own.  Many stakeholders are involved in realizing a renewable energy project: landowners, developers, financiers, construction contractors, equipment manufacturers,  specialists like ecologists, consultants and lawyers and the energy purchaser. Renewable energy projects have a carbon footprint which can be measured as discussed by my colleague Benjamin Lock in his article « Renewables: we need to talk about carbon emissions« .

This footprint is paid back relatively quickly and after that the project becomes a net positive for the climate. However, we can’t all credibly claim the GHG savings generated by these projects as offsets for our organizational (or personal) GHG emissions. Let’s be real: wind turbines and solar panels don’t magically suck CO2 out of the atmosphere! Equally, we can’t double, triple or quadruple count the savings for our own benefit.

3. We are crossing safe climate boundaries

Thirdly, it is now 2024 and our planetary carbon budget to remain within safe operating limits is blown. The world is crossing safe boundaries. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) stated in their most recent report “in the near term, global warming is more likely than not to reach 1.5°C even under very low emission scenarios”. Low emission scenarios mean deep, rapid and sustained GHG emission reductions. There are no free rides left for any businesses in the developed world! The remaining carbon budget needs to be carefully shared between key transitional industries. The deployment of renewable energy may be one of those industries but that does not mean we have been given a blank cheque to play loose and fast with our own GHG emissions. At this point every saving counts.

I think it’s fair to say that the majority of us who work in renewable energy do so because we want to contribute towards decarbonizing our electricity system. Yes, we should be proud of what we do. We are working in an industry that is actively decarbonizing our energy system day by day. But that should not mean we get a free ride.

Measuring and monitoring the GHG emissions of the work we do is the first step. The big challenge is then to reduce our environmental impacts at the same time as rapidly expanding deployment. GHG emissions are only one aspect of environmental impact. We have other challenges to face to bring about a sustainable and just transition. If you work in the renewable energy industry, and would like to discuss this further, get involved in the discussion. We would  be really keen to hear what actions you have taken in your organization to reduce GHG emissions. Let’s share knowledge, ideas and strategies and face this challenge together.