Summary of COP 28: Success or Failure?
After two weeks of negotiations, the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP) ended on Wednesday 13 December. A 24-hour extension, specifically due to the watering down of the phrase “phasing out”, ultimately led to the signing of a joint agreement by the 198 participating parties calling all industries to “transition away” from fossil fuels.
Sceptics have long accused COP participants of greenwashing, while cynics speak of a 2023 summit that falls short of the demands of the Global Stocktake. Pragmatists see the resulting agreement as a work of imperfect compromises where everything still needs to be done to bring to life what the world's figureheads have collectively pledged.
So where do we stand now? To prove COP 28 was not just a chorus of empty promises, how do we turn the agreed commitments into actionable and accountable progress by the time COP 29 is organised in 2024?
The 2030 Climate Solutions Implementation Roadmap
Not the next twenty, but the next five years will be crucial for tackling the climate crisis. The Global Stocktake text from COP28 sets ambitious targets:
- Tripling renewable energy capacity globally to 11,000 GW;
- Cutting global greenhouse gas emissions by 43%;
- Doubling the rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030.
These goals underscore the immediate need to transition to cleaner energy sources, with a focus on year-on-year progress rather than deferred action.
COP 28 Key Industrial and Commercial Decarbonisation Commitments
- The COP 28 Global Cooling Pledge includes 66 national governments that have committed to working together to reduce cooling-related emissions in all sectors globally by at least 68% compared to 2022 levels.
- The 52 signatories of the Charter to Decarbonise the Oil and Gas Industry commit to achieving net zero operations by 2050 at the latest, ending routine flaring by 2030 and reducing methane emissions upstream to near zero.
- The Industrial Transition Accelerator aims to drive decarbonisation across all high-emitting sectors, including energy, industry, and transport.
For more than a decade, Equans has been pursuing its operations in line with these objectives. Our action-based roadmap spans the entire energy value chain, accelerating deployment schedules, monitoring progress for continuous improvement, leveraging AI and digital technology, and holding parties accountable where necessary.
Equans’ Environment Commitments: leading the race to resilience
Commitments are only as good as their implementation. As such, Equans has been determined to decarbonise its own operations and demonstrate the feasibility of implementing zero-carbon technology, both in terms of energy production and efficiency, even in a reduced timeframe.
Concretely: How Equans Helps Decarbonise Industries and Businesses
The industry and commercial sectors are responsible for around 40% of CO2 emissions worldwide. Of this, 12% is attributable to construction and 28% to the operation of buildings. Renewable energies should be prioritised in the sectors that cannot do without them, such as industrial and commercial buildings and operations, and transport. Through energy systems retrofitting and efficient and renewable energy installations, we can reduce the energy consumption of a building by a factor of four, five or six.
To do so, while still meeting production requirements, Equans has a wide range of expertise along the entire value chain, adapted to the needs of businesses. From the design to the maintenance of the installations, Equans is committed to providing reliable and efficient solutions over the long term, providing advice, foresight, and honed execution capabilities. As an integrator and facilitator, from engineering to maintenance through implementation, monitoring, and training, Equans enables companies and industries to truly take off on the road to decarbonisation.
Taking The First Step with A Prioritised and Customised Roadmap
Equans supports businesses in defining their decarbonisation strategy by first creating a prioritised roadmap tailored to industry and company specific needs and scale. We recognise that incremental change can be offset by savings and therefore at zero cost, while transformative change requires investment.
Reducing the carbon footprint of your business presents a variety of challenges and the actions required are different for different types of organisations. In working with our customers, we have identified three main areas of uncertainty: the level of investment required, the time and expertise required, and not knowing where to start.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution and there are many obstacles to overcome. Whatever stage your organisation is at, Equans offers a unique breadth and depth of services covering every area of carbon reduction. Our systematic approach combines analysing your emissions and identifying the right sequence of measures, then implementing targeted services and solutions accordingly – a proven way to optimise cost efficiency and achieve carbon savings in both the short and long term.
Decarbonisation: A Lever for Sustainability and Competitiveness
Companies and industries are in fact better prepared for the energy transition than they think and can benefit more from it than they realise.
Near-Term And Long-Term Advantages of Decarbonisation
Equans’ global partnership network, regulatory expertise and localised operational approach enable companies to maintain their performance while transitioning to a more sustainable model of industrial decarbonisation. Our comprehensive offering in the context of industrial decarbonisation yields a number of near-end benefits:
- Reducing your carbon footprint
- Ensuring production and quality standards
- Strengthening the attractiveness and competitiveness of your business
- Reducing production costs and saving resources
- Guaranteeing the performance of your industrial tools and optimise their lifespan
- Optimising the profitability of production sites
There are significant long-term advantages to not lose sight of either:
- With regulations tightening around ESG concerns, money will move away from non-compliant businesses.
- National climate policies are, at varying rates, introducing incentives to facilitate development of and investment in transitioning businesses.
- R&D in carbon-neutral technology is advancing fast, bringing down upfront costs of energy efficient retrofitting and implementation of renewable energy systems.
- Shifting consumption patterns will lead to reputational damage to companies who lag behind in their energy transition.
Digital Transformation: A Catalyst for a More Lucrative Net Zero Transition
Digital solutions are emerging as key drivers in reducing energy consumption by 30 to 40% while optimising costs. The majority of buildings, which account for 30% of global final energy consumption and 26% of global energy-related emissions, still lack intelligent energy management systems like Building Management Systems (BMS), let alone Building Operating Systems (BOS), which could yield significant savings. The potential savings involved in integrating existing technologies such as MES/SCADA/PLC also remain significantly untapped.
Digitalisation and Decarbonisation Synergy
The interoperability of systems and the convergence of operating and information technologies will facilitate the development of more intelligent infrastructure, smart cities and regions. By combining data from different systems, these advancements will enable more efficient management and processing of multiple data sources in a unified space, allow better monitoring and control of energy usage, and avoid energy waste.
Harnessing our range of specialised technological capabilities that cover audiovisual, robotics integration, automation, BIM services, telecoms, communication and connectivity, we launched Equans Digital in 2022. We aim to provide solutions tailored to the specific needs and emissions targets of industrial, commercial, and urban environments, capitalising on the synergies between digitalisation and decarbonisation.
Conclusion
While the COP 28 agreement is currently being hailed as a significant milestone in our global endeavour to reduce carbon emissions by 2030, what happens over the next few years may well prove otherwise.
As industry leaders in the energy and services sector, it is up to us to use the time leading up to COP 29 to help businesses take the necessary bold steps to make accountable progress by November next year. Our comprehensive strategy combined with the breadth of our expertise and extensive network positions us as a pivotal partner for driving forward industrial and commercial decarbonisation efforts. We are not just focused on transforming commitments into actions. We aim to ensure these actions yield tangible results sooner, rather than later.