What we want
CEO comment – Vattenfall’s commitment to sustainable development
I’m often asked how we view sustainable development at Vattenfall. It’s a question which has been discussed extensively in the company and one which we take extremely seriously.
Our definition of sustainable development is the same as that adopted by the Brundtland Commission, namely development which “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. The idea central to the concept of sustainability is that the way we live today should not have a detrimental impact on the ability of future generations to have things just as good as we do and that we deal with the consequences arising from the activities we pursue today.
Sustainable development is always a relative concept. It’s a question of finding the best solution using available technologies on the basis of balancing environmental, social and economic factors.
Environmentally - to protect the productive capacity of the water, the soil and ecosystems in the longterm and to reduce the impact on nature and on human health to tolerable levels. Socially - to build a society which is stable and dynamic in the long-term where fundamental human needs are met. Economically - to make the most of valuable human and material resources in the long-term.
It’s on this basis of balancing these different perspectives that we are addressing changes to energy and transport systems. Renewable energy sources are ecologically sustainable, but they are not sufficient to meet society’s energy needs today. Coal and nuclear power therefore have to be used if society’s standard of living is to be maintained and improved. To ensure that such energy sources are consistent with sustainable development, we must take responsibility for the consequences of using them, by managing CO2 emissions and nuclear waste responsibly.
Today, Vattenfall’s power plants emit 85 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. CCS technology is one way to reduce these emissions.
To meet our responsibilities concerning global sustainability, targets have been set for reducing
Vattenfall’s total CO2 emissions. These are to be reduced by three million tons by
2010, to be halved by 2030 (based on 1990 figures). It’s a very ambitious target, but it is still not enough, our ultimate ambition is to go even further and be emission free by the middle of this century.
For this to happen, appropriate frameworks and control mechanisms need to be in place, which encourage the right investments to be made, relying on powerful market economy forces to ensure the switch to an environmentally sound future. Indicative analysis shows that for sustainability to be achieved, less than one tonne of CO2 equivalent each year could be emitted into the atmosphere by every person on the planet at the end of the century. These are the levels that the world can tolerate, and which we must achieve by 2100. Using today’s technology, one tonne of carbon dioxide is equivalent to 365 meals, that is one square meal a day, or one 20 km car journey a day, or the purchase of one T-shirt a day. Clearly, this strongly indicates the need of a total reengineering of todays society. Such changes cannot happen overnight, rather decades of systematic and target-orientated work is required.
Sustainability encompasses much more than just climate issues. It’s a question of how the entirety of the world’s resources are used, how they are circulated and how we shape them. The issue is complex and wide-ranging. It requires a systematic approach where time is of the essence. If we are to find a solid way ahead, real leadership is required.
As a European power company, Vattenfall’s aim, is to be a leading player in the transformation into ecologically sustainable energy supplies. We are also encouraging and supporting policymakers to lead the global development in the same direction to speed up the change of the transformation. The purpose of this report is to show you how we make our most important contributions to sustainable development and to present our results relating to environmental, social and economic performance in a balanced way using the GRI-guidelines.
