As part of our Countdown to COP series, Ovo Energy’s director of sustainability, Dr Rebecca Heaton, discusses the company’s Plan Zero as well as what COP26 means to her.

COP26

What do you want to hear from the conference?

COP26 is a pivotal moment for world leaders, NGOs, businesses and communities to come together to establish plans and encourage tangible action to tackle the climate emergency. For us, a successful COP26 means agreement on lasting action – adopting greener habits, kicking the coal habit entirely by 2030, abandoning fossil-fuel-powered car engines, and helping to restore our green spaces by planting more trees across the world. At OVO, our Plan Zero strategy to help our members eliminate their household emissions by 2030 is at the heart of everything we do, so we’d love to see world leaders promoting accessible blueprints that will support all households in adopting green technologies and actively encourage businesses to reduce carbon outputs. The time to act is now.

What should the legacy of COP26 be?

If Paris 2015 was the year nations finally gained consensus to reduce global warming to 2 degrees, Glasgow 2021 must be the year we agree on the tangible actions nations must take to stick to our 2 degree goal. COP26 should be the turning point in the climate crisis which the world has been waiting for. The public is aware that world leaders often pledge impressive green targets, and tease new environmental legislation, however these rarely come to fruition in the way we’d hope. COP26 must be the time when leaders don’t just speak, but act.

Is your company actively participating in COP26?

Ovo Energy as the headline sponsor of the EXTREME Hangout at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26). The primary mission of the EXTREME Hangout is to give young people a voice and a platform at COP26.

The EXTREME Hangout will be a dynamic hub at COP26 where young people can come together to hang out, share ideas, learn from others, be inspired and ultimately leave with a renewed passion, understanding and urgency to help drive the green agenda.

It will not only be a place  for world-renowned environmental leaders and climate activists to challenge and debate how we tackle the climate crisis, but also a space where businesses are laid bare, called upon to demonstrate their commitment to net-zero and reveal how they are truly working towards a more sustainable future for all.

Walking the talk

When is your company planning to get to net zero?

We aim to achieve net zero carbon emissions across our own operations by 2030, as outlined in Plan Zero: our ten-year response to the climate crisis. Our purpose is to lead the transition to a zero carbon energy system through investing in technology and to fight the climate crisis.

We will mobilise our customers to form a zero carbon community, helping them halve their total lifestyle carbon emissions and eliminate their household emissions completely by 2030. We will enable them all to be active participants in a newer, more resilient, flexible and intelligent grid and to play their part in transitioning to a zero carbon world.

As part of Plan Zero we hold ourselves accountable to science-based targets aligned to a 1.5°C increase in global temperatures with remuneration linked to carbon targets.

To what extent should utilities look to offset emissions as opposed to focusing on achieving zero carbon?

Reducing emissions should be every company’s number one priority. That’s why we set ambitious science-based targets to reduce our total carbon emissions by 60% by 2030 (from a 2018 baseline). We understand that we won’t be able to eliminate all our carbon emissions by 2030. So our plan is to invest in projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere, to balance out what’s left. There is a place for good quality carbon removal projects on our journey to net zero but we know we can’t rely on traditional carbon offsets to solve the climate crisis.

This interview is part of the Countdown to COP series. To read more click here.