Électricité de France (EDF)

EDF engages positively with policymakers to ‘climate strengthen’ the policy environment within which it operates. Areas of engagement include supporting the EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS), strengthening climate finance provision, supporting mandatory carbon reporting and ensuring that funding for adaptation actions does not detract from mitigation actions.

The subsidiary EDF Renewables is mature, of significant size (~32 GW including hydro; ~25% of total capacity in 2018) and expanding (expected to increase to 50 GW by 2030). EDF is adopting energy services business models as demonstrated by its EDF Solutions énergétiques brand, created in 2017. The company is also investing in the hydrogen economy via its partnership with McPhy in France and in flexibility optimising solutions such as power storage to support partnership off-grid power solutions in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya and Togo.

The huge amount of nuclear power generated by EDF (in 2018, 456 TWh of a total of 584 TWh) makes its ~53 GWh of fossil fuel generation look small. However, the emissions from this level of fossil fuel use are not insignificant when compared to other smaller generators. EDF could do more to speed up the phase-out of coal capacity in China and to reverse its current plans to increase gas capacity in Chile (Central El Campesino), Vietnam (Son My 1), and the UK (Sutton Bridge B and West Burton C).

EDF is reliant on nuclear power for the majority of its generation, but some nuclear assets are due to be decommissioned in the 2020s. This leaves the company with a challenge to either replace nuclear with other generation types or to shift its business away from generation to other low-carbon business lines. At the same time, costs at new nuclear projects continue to rise, e.g. repairs to faulty welds at Flamanville, and the company retains full financial and technical responsibility for the decommissioning stage of all its nuclear plants. Public concerns about nuclear power are ever present, and these, combined with strengthening economics of competing renewables, may result in additional pressures to bring forward plant closures.

The proportion of R&D spend on mitigation technologies compared to overall capital expenditure is too low – particularly as EDF’s plans for ongoing fossil fuel power will require deployment of greenhouse gas capture with permanent storage well before 2050

EDF is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050. However, in 2018, it still has significant coal capacity interests in China. These are due for closure by 2030. New gas capacity is planned, including in Europe.

EDF plans to double renewable capacity to 50 GW by 2030 and to install 10 GW of new electricity storage by 2035. It is adopting energy services business models (EDF Solutions énergétiques brand), investing in the hydrogen economy (partnership with McPhy) and investing in storage solutions to support partnerships for off-grid power solutions in Africa.

The company is currently steering its low-carbon transition towards carbon neutrality. It has incentives in place for emissions reductions but has not yet completely cut links between executive pay and fossil fuel capacity increases. EDF’s 2018 R&D spend on mitigation technologies (compared to total capital expenditure) does not demonstrate strong financial commitment to replace high-emitting generation assets.

EDF decreased overall emissions intensity from 120 gCO2e/kWh in 2013 to 60 gCO2e/kWh in 2018. While slightly decreasing nuclear generation (by far the majority of generation output), EDF also managed to decrease the proportion of fossil fuel power in its non-nuclear generation from 58% to 45%, and to increase the proportion of renewables from 42% to 55%.

EDF’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 is not enough to bring it in alignment with a well-below 2-degree pathway. Furthermore, plans for ongoing fossil fuel generation are inconsistent with even its stated aim of carbon neutrality by 2050 – unless EDF can quickly deploy cost-effective carbon capture and storage at scale.