SSE is focused on being part of the solution to the climate crisis, with the capabilities, businesses and assets to create value from efforts to tackle global warming. It is very deliberately aligned to prevailing government policy direction, with net zero at the heart of the business. COP26, where the UK Government asked SSE to participate as a Principal Partner, served to highlight the critical importance and global relevance of the Group’s strategy.
The war in Ukraine has brought into sharp focus the need for greater energy security, prompting European countries urgently to reduce their reliance on fossil fuel imports. In this context, governments are recognising it is more important than ever that indigenous low-carbon investment is expedited to keep energy affordable and secure.
SSE welcomed the UK Government’s net zero and energy security strategies, which give a clear signal to low-carbon investors and developers to keep investing at the scale needed to achieve net zero by 2050 and support more immediate energy security. And SSE also takes the support received at the 2021 AGM for an annual vote on its Net Zero Transition Report as a clear signal of ongoing shareholder support for its strategic decarbonisation efforts.
The Net Zero Acceleration Programme aligns SSE with 1.5°C science-based targets and positions it to enable around 20% of the UK’s 50GW offshore wind target by 2030, and over 20%
of upcoming UK electricity networks investment, whilst leading investments in flexibility and exporting our renewables capabilities overseas. The urgency of the climate emergency from COP26 and the resulting Glasgow Pact is clear. SSE believes that decarbonisation of the energy system could go further and faster and at the summit it was able to make that case on the world stage.