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Henri Proglio is the chairman and CEO of Électricité de France (EDF). He spoke ahead of the UN Secretary-General's Climate Leadership Summit about the importance of carbon pricing for the electricity sector to move toward a low-carbon economy.
"As an energy company operating worldwide, we are well placed to know that all glances are on us. Our sector is responsible for a big share of worldwide carbon emissions."
"In the meantime, electricity is needed everywhere to ensure essential services and economic development. The recent changes in energy policies – the drop in the prices of coal and the absurdly low cost of emission allowances – don’t fit well with the expected reductions of CO2 emissions. It is definitely not the legacy that we want to have for our future generations."
"In EDF Group, we are convinced that carbon price measures like taxes, cap and trade systems are obviously needed. This would allow modern and mature technologies to enter into the market and to be valuable from an industrial point of view. As soon as an environmental market is organized, emissions will be reduced at the lowest possible cost."
"Since 2008, we in EDF Group have adopted a strategy to avoid climate change and CO2 emissions as part of our overall sustainable development policies. We now take actions to lower or to avoid carbon emissions into account in our operations and investment decisions. EDF will keep the lowest CO2 intensity among the main energy producers."
"To me, it’s a matter of absolute necessity that we should introduce carbon prices with sufficient visibility to ensure long-term investments will be in line with the emergence of a low-carbon economy."
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