Major Corporations Urge EU To Simplify Investing & Sourcing Renewable Energy
Almost 100 organizations led by major corporations such as Amazon, Google, and Heineken have signaled their willingness this week to do more on climate action and have urged European governments to make it easier to invest in and directly source renewable energy.
The group of almost 100 organizations signed a joint declaration at the RE-Source 2018 event in Amsterdam on Tuesday which seeks the removal of barriers to renewable energy procurement across Europe in an effort intended to support the region’s climate and energy goals. “As the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report made clear and as the upcoming COP24 climate negotiations will reinforce, addressing climate change is an urgent global imperative and will require rapid decarbonisation of the electricity system,” the corporations wrote. “Corporate renewable energy purchasing can play a critical role in driving this energy transition.”
More specifically, the group is calling on European policymakers to remove the regulatory and administrative barriers currently in place preventing corporate sourcing of renewable energy — a move required by the Renewable Energy Directive, recently-enacted by the European Commission, so that the early successes of corporate renewable energy procurement, concentrated primarily in the Nordics, the Netherlands, and the UK, can be replicated more broadly across the entire European Union.
The declaration was headed up by RE-Source — Europe’s platform for corporate renewable energy sourcing — and was signed by corporations including Amazon, Enel Green Power, Engie, Facebook, Google, Heineken, IKEA, Microsoft, and many others.
“As the world’s largest corporate buyer of renewable energy, we are dedicated to doing our part to scale renewables in Europe,” said Marc Oman, Senior Energy Lead from Google. “Expansion of corporate PPAs can be a major driver in Europe’s renewable energy transition.”
The RE-Source declaration calls on policymakers to action on several pressing issues, including:
- Removing regulatory and administrative barriers to corporate renewable sourcing, as required by the recently enacted Renewable Energy Directive, so the early success – mainly concentrated to date in the Nordics, the Netherlands and the UK – can be replicated more broadly.
- Providing corporates with clarity and certainty of long-term ownership of Guarantees of Origin (GOs) from contracted supplies. Access to GOs is critical to the business case for corporate procurement.
- Encouraging cross-border renewable energy transactions to maximize opportunities to deploy the most cost-effective renewable energy solutions. Enablers include implementing GO systems that ensure environmental integrity, transparency, harmonized treatment and prevent double-counting.
- Enabling a wide variety of procurement models and market products, from on- and off-site solutions to multi-corporate renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) to minimize risks and maximize participation.
“Businesses play an important role in tackling climate change by investing in renewable energy generation,” said Pia Heidenmark Cook, CSO of IKEA Group (Ingka Holding). “IKEA has set an ambition to be climate positive by 2030, reducing more greenhouse gas emissions than the value chain emits. A key part of this transformation will aim to use 100% renewable energy throughout the entire IKEA value chain. At IKEA we also want to empower the many people to generate their own renewable energy and together make a bigger impact. We call on governments to set the right policies to fulfil our ambition to live within the limits of the planet.”
“Corporate sourcing of renewable energy plays a key role in accelerating Europe’s clean energy transition,” added Vanessa Miler, Renewable Energy Strategist, Microsoft. “The demand from corporates is clear. With the Renewable Energy Directive having being passed, we look forward to a regulatory framework further enabling corporate PPAs to allow more investments in renewable energy, taking us ahead in our journey towards a greener Europe.”
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