A global collection of companies across the power sector have come together to create the Powering Net Zero Pact as part of the legacy of COP26.
Led by SSE, the eleven partners have worked together since the COP26 conference, held in Glasgow last year, to develop the pact.
This pact sees the firms promise to uphold a series of social, environmental and corporate commitments.
This includes five areas of ambition, including achieving net zero, protecting and enhancing the natural environment, transitioning to a circular economy, guaranteeing fair work and sustainable jobs and adding value to local communities.
There are also five shared commitments, which are:
- Work towards science-based carbon targets, aligned to 1.5 degrees
- Disclose wider environment metrics
- Set waste reduction targets and incorporate circularity
- Create a roadmap for net zero skills and guarantee fair work standards
- Identify shared responsible developer, constructor and operator principles
Lastly, there are also five topics for collaboration, including frameworks for achieving biodiversity net gain, targeting human rights risk across global supply chains and supporting competitive, local supply chains close to assets.
The final two topics for collaboration are quantification of scope 3 carbon emissions and innovative products and methods for reducing waste.
Alistair Phillips-Davies, SSE chief executive, said: “The climate emergency and the need to secure more stable and affordable energy supplies have accelerated the transition to a low carbon future.
“But as we are all swept-up in the race to net zero we have a duty of care to ensure no one is left behind. And not just in our own operations.”
Together, the eleven firms operate in over 100 countries and employ around 240,000 people with a combined turnover of over £55 billion.
They are working on what SSE said is some of the largest low-carbon infrastructure projects in the world, including the £3.6 billion Dogger Bank offshore wind farm, set to be the world’s largest, as well as the £3 billion Seagreen onshore wind farm and the £580 million Viking onshore wind farm – all of which SSE is involved in the development of.
The founding partners are: Siemens Energy, Siemens Gamesa, Balfour Beatty, DEME, GE Renewable Energy, Hitachi Energy, NKT, RJ McLeod, SSE, Subsea 7 and Vestas.
