Tue Jul 13
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Wed Jul 14
8:00 AM
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BROADCAST
Starts 2 min before the session time
Good morning, I'm Meg Szabo and I'm delighted to welcome you today to the Bloomberg sustainable business Summit, Global over. The next two days will can be in global leaders for conversations focused on the unique challenges and also the opportunities that are facing corporate Executives and investors that are working in sustainability. Will cover a wide range.
Of ESG topics from the road to NetZero to action through, voter, proxy to building a diverse and inclusive Workforce, but before we get started, a few quick housekeeping announcements. First, I would like to acknowledge our Global advisor. Natixis investment, managers are Summit, advisors PWC RBC, Schlumberger and Wipro and are supporting sponsor, Principal Financial Group.
If you experience any issues with audio or video, quality, try to refresh your browser, or use the chat box in the bottom, right corner of your screen for support. You'll also be able to submit questions during our interviews and we hope that you do to submit questions. Please click open the white tab on the right hand side of the video window and submit your question there. If you know what your name and where you are will also give you a quick shout-out.
Also, please engage with us on social media, using the hashtag sustainable business Summit and engage with other attendees in the event chat, at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. Now, let's get started with our first session of the day. Please join me in welcoming Bernhard, loony, CEO of BP for a conversation with Bloomberg's, Alex deal.
So Bernard you just started talking about, it's 18 months ago, you laid out your vision for BP. A year ago, you gave more specific targets. If you had a scale of 1 to 10 10 being you're at your goal, where do you feel like? BP is right now, I feel really good. I likes about where we're at and it's great to see you and thanks for including Kidding me. I
Really good. I think it's been a difficult year for the world for Society for our employees for shareholders and the pandemic has obviously been overriding everything but we've done a lot in the last 18 months and I was just looking back at a few of the things this morning, but our strategy at its core speaks to performing. While transforming it's about delivering for our shareholders today while preparing BP for tomorrow. And I think on that Front, we've done.
Well, I think our first quarter results were, I think everybody would say a strong set of results and show that the business is really performing bringing on new projects, taking costs out of the system, doing the things that a well-run business does. And at the same time, I think or two past 18 months, we've made some real steps into the future as we prepare and indeed transition BP for tomorrow. So, feeling pretty good. As we sit here today, Alex. So scale from one to ten, ten being you. Did everything. It's
Where do you feel like you're at? Well, it's a big company, of course, in many, many parts of the world. So there are always issues but certainly up there at an eight or nine. Oh, eight or nine. Okay. Now talk about the trade that performing while transforming and in terms of where you think that shareholders are because I'm sure the conversation with your shareholders has evolved very much in the last 18 months here in the US. A lot of oil companies, like Exxon are getting a lot of activist investor shareholder pressure so when you deal with shareholders, Where are they on a scale from 1 to 10?
Well, I think look, we have to put ourselves in our shareholders shoes and what we announced last year particularly with our strategy update in August and September was a real strategic pivot for the company. And I think the real question on shareholders, mines was whether this needed to be a choice, was this a company that could transition for the future? But maybe have to compromise on delivery for today and I think that's what investors were trying to get their head around. As we?
End of last year. And that's why I think as we headed into this year, the story has taken some time to sink in. I think people Now understand it a lot better. You may have seen Barclays recent report that raised us to are their top. Pick in the sector and said that we were the most undervalued and we had the most upside and I think it was those first quarter results that show that this was a business that had the potential to generate real cash and we delivered that net debt of 30 Three billion less than 35 over a year early.
Hostas coming out of the system, two and a half billion by the middle of this year. Three to four billion per annum by 2023. We're bringing on new projects they're going. Well so all of the things that are well run business needed to do and I think investors like that and they like the fact that through our ambition that we launched with you, in fact last year, we're sort of we're ahead of the game, a net, zero ambition, 50% reduction in carbon intensity and importantly a 40 percent reduction in Productions. So, are we preparing BP for tomorrow, I think.
People will question our resolve to do that. And at the same time, importantly, we have to deliver on the investor promised today, which is to deliver cash returns to our investors and that's what we're doing. So if BP is an eight or nine, I our shareholders are 289, I think our shareholders are much more comfortable with the strategy and the story and much more supportive of it today than they would have been several months ago. I think that's on the back of strong operating Performance. That is the core.
And at the same time, I think they're seeing us take decisions as we invest into the future that are disciplined, that are strategically coherent and that set the company up. Well, for the long run, this isn't a light switch. This is not a flip overnight. This is a transition and I think that the investors are seeing Alex more and more that this doesn't have to be a choice that they can get a resilient dividend today. They can get upside through, share BuyBacks and If the oil prices stay strong, these will be material Sheriff.
Max. This is a company that is going to grow seven to nine percent per share and edit data terms over the next five years and it can be part of a sustainable transition. So the proposition is becoming clearer and clearer to investors. And I think they are beginning to feel much more comfortable about the story and the strategy I'll put them in at 8:00. Then feels like that's an eight or my firm for which we will go with that. Okay, I mentioned Exxon and Engine one, an activist investor and pressure but it's not just with Exxon.
L also lost a Court ruling that sort of pushing them to move, faster to speed things up. If someone came to you and said Bernhard, you got to move BP faster than you thought. Can you do that? Well, let me just say a couple of things on that Alex. And, you know, I think I can say this openly. I think, few people doubt that we are doing everything that we can to transition this company. Last year, we talked a very difficult decision to To cut our
Then half so that we can transition. We wrote off 20 billion dollars worth of assets, which we felt neither should be produced or could be produced. They were written off a very difficult decision so that we can transition. We restructure the company in the biggest restructuring in a hundred and ten years, so that we can transition. And we announced a plan to cut our oil and gas production by 40% over the next decade so that we can transition. So I think it would be very difficult. I think.
Ask more of a company of our size and scale. So I think the commitment is there, I think the evidence is there and Alex is I look back when I spoke with you and London almost 18 months ago? Just before the pandemic, look at what we have done in the new world. Since then we had zero gigawatts of offshore wind. Then today we have three point seven, we had a renewable pipeline that was for gigawatts today, it's 23 gigawatts. We had 7000 charging.
Today, we have 10,000 charging points are net debt, by the way, at the end of that first quarter was 51 billion today. It's thirty three billion. So when I look at it on those dimensions, of course, there are people who will say that you should do more, but I think there are a lot of people who would say that's an ambitious plan. That's ambitious, delivery. Keep going. Stay disciplined. Stay focused on performance and keep preparing this company for tomorrow's. So that's what I would say in response to that. That question along the same lines. I'm wondering.
Because you've had 18 months and no doubt you took over in this transition and CEO and an extraordinarily tough time. Is there some one thing that you felt that you could have done better that there was some kind of transient transition or some sort of thing that you did that you're like I wish I could have done that. Instead I wish I could have done that better and then conversely one thing that you're super super proud of that you felt was ambitious and that you got it and you nailed it. I think look. I think the things that I would speak to Alex These are around quite frankly and quite openly our people.
You know, we have 70,000 people working in over 70, countries around the world. I come from an upstream background so intimately familiar with the people who went offshore to our facilities and kept the oil flowing. The people obviously that worked in our refineries, that kept the fuel and the gasoline flowing. And when I moved to my new job meeting, the people in our retail sites, across the world who are right at the front line, right? At the Frontline sharp edge dealing with customers. Has each and every day.
And I think so, what am I most proud of our? You know, I'm actually most proud of what they have done to keep the energy flowing in the world. It's extraordinary that even in a year when the entire world seemed to grind to a halt energy, use was only to only down by about 4%. So that's the thing that I'm most proud of those people. And the thing that I wish I could have done, more of would have been to help those folks because some of the stories are incredible. We've just heard one A gentleman. Come back from anger.
To his family in the UK has been away, five and a half months from his family because of all the quarantines and the rotors that were doing and he's going into a quarantine hotel for two weeks, in the UK, we have our people on our ships, around the world who've had extraordinary problems, trying to crew change in some of them being away for six or nine months and you just wish that with everything that everyone has going on, that you could help them more. But from a strategic perspective,
There are always things that you would do different, but I would have to say that on balance, I feel good about where we're at in a strategic sense. It's now about a Relentless focus on performance and execution, and cash, delivery and delivering on that chair on the proposition. While at the same time, not or while at the same time, preparing the company for the future.
It was a very good answer when you talk about buying assets for wind and you mentioned for the huge steps that you guys have made in the last 18 months. One push back, is that you guys are overpaying for assets. What's your response to that? My response is simply, we're not overpaying for assets. It's as simple as that. We have a very clear return threshold. We've been very clear that we will not reach our targets if we cannot meet that return. Shoulder of eight to ten percent. We walk away from
Are more projects than we do and when we do them we do them in a disciplined way. People talk about the projects here, in the Irish sea Alex, there are probably six or seven companies that want to buy into that project today and they would pay a premium to enter that project. People say, well you're an oil and gas company that's behind or late to the party or whatever language they wish to use and therefore you overpaid. And of course the answer to that is well in that particular For instance, where not be.
In our own, we have a partner called nbw who is a German utility with extensive experience in offshore wind. So, it's not like we're doing these things on our own. So we're confident in what we are doing. We have a very clear Financial framework. We have very clear, Financial objectives, and we are very clear that if we cannot meet those objectives, we won't do the projects. And as I said, we walk away from far more than we do. I would add, by the way, I
Stud in solar light source, BP has done 31 projects. Now, all of which have met our return threshold. So, this isn't something about the future. This is about a track record that exists today as well. So this is sort of the opposite of that question. I'm Boston Consulting Group a few weeks ago, had a report out that said, the majors the oil majors are going to spend more on low carbon Investments this year than traditional oil and gas. So the first time that flip would have happened for BP, is there going to be a point where that Flip happens for you. We're going to spend more money on those low-carbon Investments than you do.
Oil and gas. It's five billion. It's five billion by 2030 when does it shift? Yeah. By the end of the deck, by the end of this decade, Alex. I think you'll see that start to shift. We're going to increase our investment in the transition by about tenfold over the next five years are brother next 10 years, eight fold, over the next five years. So this is a material step up in an investment. We have to continue to invest in that hydrocarbon-based because it is core to our Strategy. And without those hydrocarbons, we don't get
A transition. So the hydrocarbons provide the cash flow that is necessary to make sure that our investors get the return that they deserve. They've been patient. And it is time for them to get the return that they deserve. Make sure that we have a strong balance sheet and that we can invest into the transition. So this will evolve over time. It's not an overnight switch that some people would wish it were. This is a complex transition but it's one that I think our plan is He very, very clear on.
And that will play out over the coming years. Do you think that oil Majors like yourself that are making these tough calls on where to invest money? Are you guys setting the oil market up for a super cycle? Or do you think you can stay flexible enough to prevent that from happening while also spending a lot of capital and time into other types of Investments? Well look, I think a lot of
Blur or talking about our commitment to reduce our production by 40 percent by 2030. That's about 20% by 2025. Even by reducing our volume by 20% by 2025, we will still grow our earnings in our cash flow from that business through that period. Why? Because we don't necessarily what we don't want to run the biggest oil business. We want to run the best oil and gas business and as you well know, that means that you focus relentlessly. On your portfolio, focusing on value, not volume.
We focus religiously on on margin, our margins will go up 20% on a unit basis over the next five years. So this is a strategy of focusing on value creation and that means we don't worry about volume. We focus on values. So I think there's a good chance that oil prices will be robust and high over the coming years. Alex, I think there's a good possibility that they will be volatile. We're not planning on them being high. We're.
In a company that's resilient to a low price. But I can tell you and I can assure you that if they are high we have a portfolio that will absolutely benefit from that and because we have the share buyback program that we have, that says that 60% of excess free cash is used for buyback purposes. That could result in material share BuyBacks, over the coming years, if prices remain at the levels that they are today. If you needed to though, could you pick up the Pace and produce more oil and gas. If the
Old needed to prevent some kind of super cycle or as a discipline just going to be the discipline discipline is going to be the discipline in your words. We would do this 40% with or without an energy transition. This we believe is the right way to run a hydrocarbon portfolio. Focus on value, focus on margin. Take costs out of the business, digitize everything that we can I've just come out of a meeting on digital. I've just come out of a meeting. On agile, we have.
We think is the largest organization working in an agile way in the energy sector, seven thousand people. Now working in a structured agile, way decisions, being made 30 to 40% Quaker, that's what running a good oil and gas business is about for us and that means that we can actually grow cash flow from that business over the coming years. Even as we shrink volume talking about carbon offsets,
I know that they're an important part of the energy transition because they're just some industries that just can't green quickly, what's the role. But then the criticism for carbon offsets is you're just going to plant a lot of trees and that's really not going to do it. Can you talk to me about how BP thinks about that? Well, the first thing is that we're going to reduce our emissions scope 1 and 2 emissions by between 30 and 40 percent. Within the next decade, we're also going to reduce the emissions from the carbon content of the oil and gas production that Produced, you'll remember this fact by also about 30 to 40 percent over
Stick a importantly, we do not rely on carbon offsets to achieve that level of emissions reduction. Now, with that said, we do believe that carbon offsets are an important tool in the toolkit to help the world get to Net Zero. This is a complicated challenging problem and Alex, we're going to need all the tools that we can throw at it solar wind hydrogen ccs and indeed carbon offsets or what People call, Natural climate Solutions, BP is
Is very active in the trading, space around this. When it's done properly, it can be an important Market signal to Industries, and allows them to actually bear the cost of that externality, but do it in a way that is efficient. It also, as you say, has extremely as benefits around biodiversity, if it's done properly. So I think the key for me is to fold in natural, climate Solutions, number one, we do not rely on them. For our own emissions plans, over the next decade.
To we will be active in that space. In a trading sense, we need a proper effective market and we must make sure that quality is at the core of that. Because that is the most important thing. And when I talk about quality, and I talked about really being invested in reforestation, are preventing something that was going to be cut down from being cut down. And also how it relates to the community where that works. And how we make sure that those farmers Are fairly compensated and we
Started. We just bought a company in California actually and its role in life. It's called finite carbon. Its role in life. Is that any farmer anywhere in the world can plant a single tree and get paid for it and it does this through a satellite system where it has the resolution to be able to pinpoint a tree, pinpoint the quality of the work and make sure that that farmer gets appropriately, compensated, so that's the type of thing that can Can help, but it's got to
Already at its core. Yeah. And that speaks to the broader sustainability point, which leads me to when you sell an asset. What's the thought process? Because some might say it's better for you guys to keep an asset that then you can green better. But if you're just selling, it may be the person who buys it isn't going to do it as well as going to get a little bit dirtier and not greener. How do you make that more sustainable? Look, Alex, I think the, you know, the first thing that I would say is that we don't own the Resources in the
Of the countries that we work in. So some people say, well just put the resource to one side, put it in a bad bank or whatever and let it decline. Well, that's they're not ours to do that with. We do not own the resource. They are the resources of countries and only countries can decide how best to develop their resources in their own economic interests. So that's one point I would make. The second point I would make is that divestments isn't the only route to our 40% reduction in production? We are Exploring Less in.
We said, we will no longer enter a new basins to explore for hydrocarbons. We've taken our capital budget way down. It used to be almost twenty billion dollars a year in hydrocarbons sedates between seven and nine billion dollars in hydrocarbons. So, we're not just selling, we're also doing it very, very differently. Divestments have been part of our strategy for as long as I've been in the company. So there's nothing new here. Of course, we take that money from divestments and we invested into the transition. So I would argue that's an Net positive for the world. But finally, Alex, I would say the following
I have a responsibility clearly to society and to the world to do what I can do to help in a small way, help the world get to Net Zero and that's what we are trying to do. I also have a responsibility to the shareholders of BP to the owners of BP, to, to grow the value of BP. And one of the ways to do that is to de-risk it as an investment proposition. And one of the ways, the risk it is to decarbonize it. So I hold those two obligations side. By side and divestments helps me.
Early on that obligation to the owners of BP. If that makes sense? It does the tricky part in all of that is rosneft, what kind of conversation you guys having about eventually having to sell it? Rosneft is. So, the first thing I would say is resilient hydrocarbons are absolutely core to the BP strategy. It's one of our three pillars growing convenience and Mobility investing in low-carbon electricity and energy and resilient hydrocarbons. In fact, those resilient Carbons are the engine of the transition.
Next is the epitome of resilient hydrocarbons both from a cost perspective and from an environmental perspective. Now why do I say that? Well, first of all, it's lifting costs are less than three dollars. A barrel in BP. Today, they're between six and seven so they're very resilient from a cost perspective. And from an environmental perspective, their greenhouse gas intensity per barrel of oil, produced is better than BP. In fact, it's better than many of the international oil companies. Companies in the course, they have tremendous scale and
Way, I would argue, they care deeply about this subject. They've just released a new 2035 plan where they're going to make that greenhouse gas intensity, even better by between 20 and 30%. They have driven their fugitive emissions down by 70 or 80% in 2019. They have said a methane intensity Target of .25, which is very strong in Industry. So rosneft cares deeply about its environmental performance and so do the Russian people Russian people. Care as much about their environment and their
Lakes and their forests from my own experience of having been there. Then we in the US and UK care about our local environment. And when something is a priority in that company, it gets done. And I've seen fantastic progress, we can learn as much from rosneft in this subject as they can from us. But clearly we work these issues together.
Does that mean that you would never sell it? Rosneft is an absolute core part of our company and our strategy.
That's pretty clear as we just finish up, I wanted to get your take on scope three, the emissions from your products. That is a big debate in the industry if people commit to scope three analysts say yeah, that's not going to happen. No one can actually do that but it is definitely the elephant in the room. How do you think about starting to tackle that down the road? Well, we have a carbon intensity Target on scope three emissions. We said that we will reduce the carbon intensity. A of those emissions by 50%.
20:50. So that's number one. Number two, I think is very important that we have said that the carbon content associated with the oil and gas that we literally add to the world through our Drilling and production around the world, we're going to take that down by 30 to 40 percent over the next decade, which I think is absolutely material, but looks CO3 emissions are absolutely important. We have to work with Mint because it's government who creates policy.
We have to work with our customers to help them and we have to Alex instead of saying, it's all on, our customers are, it's all on government which it is partly. We have to be the ones who are saying. Look, this is a really challenging problem, back to that statistic, imagine that in a world where it felt like the world ground to a halt energy, use only fell by four percent. So this is a very complex problem to solve but our role in BP isn't to tell Society how hard this is. Is our role is to help Society. Give them what they
And that's what an integrated Energy company can do. That's our strategy. It's to help people get the energy that they want. That is clean, reliable and affordable. That's what a hospital needs. That's what a data center needs. And our job is to try and help solve that problem with our customers and with government because without policy and without our customers, we won't be able to do it without us on the production side. It has to be us working together. And that what I that is, what I think is, what leadership is about? About Wellborn Ernie.
So much in 18 months. I look forward to the next 18 months for you guys. Thank you so much for your time. I very much. Appreciate it. Thank you for joining me. Alex always, great to see you, and thank you for including us. Thank you.
Hi, everyone, and great to meet you. My name is Kyle Harrison and I lead the sustainability research team at Bloomberg any F. So we are the market research arm of Bloomberg that is focused on the low-carbon transition and thank you all for joining me today on our panel on setting and achieving NetZero commitments. So before we hand it off to our fabulous panelists, I thought it would provide a few numbers just to highlight, how much momentum we're seeing in the corporate race to Net Zero. So there is this initiative called the climate action. 100, plus And it is a group of now. Over 500 investors and asset managers.
That have pledged to take a more radical voting stance and get their portfolio companies to decarbonize. And specifically, they're taking aim at a hundred and sixty seven of their heaviest emitting companies, deemed to be the heaviest emitting in the world. And today eight of those 167 what they call Focus companies, 83 of them are roughly half. Have now said a NetZero Target or equivalent, so they've effectively pledged to fully reduce or offset their emissions at a level equivalent to what they emit on an annual basis.
If all 83 of these companies were to go ahead and achieve their Net Zero goals, it would result in eight point three billion metric, tons of carbon dioxide being removed, on an annual basis. And to put that into scale, that is roughly 20% of global carbon dioxide emissions, from 83 companies alone, so the magnitude of what the private sector can achieve. When it goes ahead and sets these Net, Zero goals is quite significant but the challenge is with new companies going out and setting NetZero targets every single day. Day, it creates a huge opportunity for greenwashing because there's no standardization.
And there's no best practice on what makes a good NetZero Target. And as a result, all these investors and other stakeholders that have so much interest in this corporate race are left, really confused in the end. So today we thought we would bring together some of the experts in the corporate sustainability. Sector to discuss this corporate race to Net Zero. And what makes a good Target. So today I'm joined by Jim Whitehurst who is a senior advisor for IBM and Xavier dinelli who's a senior vice president for Sustainable development.
Schneider Electric Jim Xavier. How are we doing today? Same.
Yeah, thanks for joining me. So, the first thing I want to talk about on this panel is around what makes a good NetZero Target because again, a NetZero Target, can mean many different things. It has different names. It comes in all different shapes and sizes. So Jim, I want to start with you. So earlier, this year, in February IBM, went ahead and announced a NetZero Target. Can you tell us a little bit more about, you know, the timing of that goal. Why you chose to announce it earlier this year? I mean, how all that came together?
Yeah, sure. So first off we have a lot of experience with Net Zero, or with carbon goals. This is our fifth, our first carbon reduction goal. We put out in the year 2000. We've met each of those subsequent for. So we're now starting our fifth which is to take this all the way to zero. So we've been focused on this for quite a while. And the timing really was around Paris climate Accords, that kind of the growing drumbeat, we wanted and Just finished our prior goal was time to set a new goal.
I think it's important with these goals that they are aligned with your business and we can come back and spend a lot of time talking about what kind of aligned with your business. Is we also, you know, I didn't say in 2000. We said at 2030 goal, we've actually had multiple of these goals that are shorter term. We do feel like having a shorter term goal in our case 2030. That's only nine years away. It's kind of eight planning Cycles away and that's within the timeframe of the existing management team so it makes it much more tangible to To have these shorter term goals where it's not an aspiration that literally has to be a plan on it. So we'll come back.
We'll talk a little bit more about it, but the idea of having a short enough that you that they're truly truly actionable and very well aligned with your business. And you know what we do with our clients as well? I think are both key to success. Yeah, I love the point about you know, and setting an earlier goal where the current Management Group is held accountable for it, right? Because there's so many companies that will go ahead and they'll say we're going to be Net Zero by 2050 and they're going to get the same credit as a company that sets a near Net Zero goal for 2030 but the issue The thing is, you know, the the management team at a company that has a 2015 at 0 goal they don't need to start thinking about this for
They're 20 years and they might not even be at the company at that point. So I guess this is that call for immediate investment decisions and immediate action from IBM to start decarbonizing today. Well as to so what we've done is we also said interim goals. So we set 20 25 goals in terms of reduction. So in our case, 65% reduction from we're using 2010 is a baseline. But as 65% reduction by 2025, and then a full hundred percent by 2030 and then within that, we have some Up goals around.
Percentage of Renewables that we will use. And then I think this is important. It, you know, contextually, I think how you get there is different for different companies. So, for instance, for IBM, we have committed that we will not use offsets to reach our goal, and look, there's nothing wrong with offset. So, when I was back at Delta, Airlines in the early 2000s, we were one of the first companies to do offset. So I'm a problem with that. But if we're all planning and 2040 to be buying offsets, there's not going to be enough. Offside. So not enough nature-based solutions that are going to get us there. So as a
Allergy company, we've committed to removing any residual carbon that we're going to admit. And we did that because it's a technology company with deep expertise in Material Science and Quantum Computing. In AI, we believe we can do that. And if we can't do that, who can? So we were, it was important for us as a technology company to say, not only are we going to get to Net Zero but that Net Zero is going to come from actual technologies that we can develop that allows us to Get there obviously for
An airline, it's going to be a different approach, right? So what makes a good program, I do think differs a bit by industry, but for us, we thought it was important to say, hey, it's technology companies. Let's not just write a check to buy offsets because we don't know if they're going to be enough nature-based Solutions in the future. We need to commit that we will finding a way with technology to get there.
Very interesting and I definitely want to get back to that point of, you know, what technologies IBM is looking at. But also this broader topic of offsets because it does kind of go hand in hand with this race to Net Zero, in terms, of staggered, I guess are in terms of timelines. And you know how every company's Net Zero goals. Different Xavier at Schneider Electric, you guys are aiming for NetZero operational emissions. So those scope 1 and 2 emissions that come from your business by 2030 and then separately, you have this 2050 goal that addresses your scope, three emissions. Which comes from your suppliers, of course, upstream and the use of your product Downstream by your customers. Can you tell us a little bit more about how you
Went ahead and staggered that out. And what was the thought process behind that? So, thank you very much for this. So, yes, one of the important things for a company, like, Schneider our Prime business, if you want is to be involved in electrical energy management. So, this is what we've been doing for years. And we understand what makes it complicated right? To reach the Net Zero Target. One of the important things. Also, we've been doing, just like my colleague on the panel. As just mentioned, we've been doing Carbon footprint evaluation now for years, almost 20 years or so.
And what we have noticed is if we look at a company like Schneider Electric hundred, and forty thousand people worldwide, operating in hundred countries 200-plus industrial sites, our scope one and two a mission is only one percent of the total emission of the company. So what makes it a strategic move for us? Is to look at scope three emissions. And we look at when we look at scope three emissions, they say roughly 10 percent comes from our own suppliers and the rest of it comes from the application that our Customers would do in their own operations. So for us to focus on school,
So he's absolutely Paramount and this is also not only a burden. That is also an opportunity for business. What should I do does is we deliver solutions to provide energy efficiency and also switch to renewable energies. So by putting the very, very stringent targets to our own Supply base. For example, this generates business opportunities for our company in order to be able to deliver these solutions to our own supply chain. So it's a win. Nguyen effect in a way.
It increases the business for Schneider Electric as a business opportunity. But at the same time, it's a great way for suppliers to benefit from a world-class manufacturer to implement solutions for decarbonization. So we see this, not only as a challenge, it is a challenge obviously, but but also as a business real business opportunity. So the investment is worth it and it's not to compromise on the bottom line. And so it's a win-win, totally win-win engagement.
Right. Yeah, and that's kind of like the
Please Jim.
Sorry sorry I thought I heard a comment better. Yeah I mean I do think that you know I want to talk about this kind of later on in the panel as well about kind of creating new opportunities as a result of this. But I think this is like a perfect example, right? Of for some people how confusing this this race to NetZero can be, right? Because both your companies are doing such ambitious things and leading when it comes to decarbonization. But your targets are so different, right? You have different timelines, your address. Seeing different emissions at different time, periods. And then your carbon Footprints, of course.
Entirely different. So there's this huge need at least from Bloomberg nef standpoint for standardization of Net, Zero goals, providing some type of Baseline of, unless you've set a Target that meets criteria X y&z, there's really no point in setting a NetZero goal, right? So Xavier kind of sticking with you for Schneider who was, you know, in a lot of ways. Considered one of the world's most sustainable companies, what type of leadership role can you provide? And in showing what best practice looks like and providing a good example of an Zero goal.
So for us, what is clear, is that this has to be backed by science. So, the approach we've taken for NetZero targets is to basically get every single action plan objective that we have to be backed and certified by as bti with science-based Target and and back to the comment from Jimmy earlier, it's not good enough to set a Target very long term and very long term in this discussion would be 2050. What's really really important and is also Very, very thoroughly by as bti.
To see what are the interims steps. And for us, we have some very clear objective for our complete supply chain. So from scope 1 plus 2 plus 3. So the total thing not only your own emissions as I mentioned before is relatively easy, right? Let's go up. One and two is only 1% for us but very drastic, an ambitious reduction, targets, 2025 2030 2040, so that we can measure up the progress and this side in due course, Has also for our own sake.
Whether the investment that we have made, all the pressure that we have made is good enough to still be in line with the 1.5 degrees in Ohio, which is the scenario on which everybody is now aligned to. We need to minimize the emission compared to the pre-industrial world to 1.5. So today, we've already let's say in our budget Global budget. Well, budget we have, we are observing an elevation of temperature around one point one degrees. So what we have Left collectively is only 0.5 0.4.
Is until the end of the century, which is very small, so which is triggering a sense of urgency for everyone. A sense of seriousness and, and also some backing from science, which is absolutely key to make these NetZero targets credible. The earlier, the better, the less emission the better obviously,
The science-based targets just about done. And those Xavier said that, yeah, transparency and standards are critically important in Colorado. You've reported a lot on this, we're technology company. So we talk about standards and Open Standards and kill all the time because that's how Technologies fit together. It's not too different when we think about, you know, being able to have policy and transparency around the missions and how we're going to close those gaps having clear standards for how we measure how we report? Port is going to be critical. And look, we can do that as individual companies but that's
Only going to require governments and business to come together to ultimately build that set of Standards. So we can all be able to add up the numbers and have a sense of what we're seeing versus kind of all the various different flavors, and I think we're making progress converging that. But let's be honest, we still have a ways to go not as individual companies but, you know, broadly as industry and government and putting those together.
Right. And and IBM's actually practicing what it preaches, they're right. Because you guys are a member now of the climate pledge, which is the initiative that Amazon started and now has over a hundred corporations that are setting. Again these standardized Net Zero goals and putting their weight behind climate, right? Yeah. It's we have found over time, certainly in the technology industry that getting Consortium of together to actually kind of understand and kind of work in this aisle. User-driven.
Vacation. So users if you want to say us coming together and setting, those typically works better than a top-down mandate. Right? Because ultimately there's a lot of subtlety in putting these together across companies across industry. And so yeah, we're trying to do our part to do that and look we still have work to do and how you ultimately get all the way to the investing community in. Okay, as an investor, how do I assess the carbon impact of my investing all the way through to companies and kind of Working that together in a framework, still has work to go. I think.
Great progress. But that's certainly something broadly for industry government for the investing Community together that we need to continue to drive.
Absolutely completely agreed. So I want to move kind of to the second phase of this panel now, which is again, once you set a net zero goal, what are the low-carbon path ways you take to achieving that goal? And Jim, I want to stick with you and that point that you made earlier about looking at those those those feasible Technologies to actually remove any residual carbon rather than simply rely on a mechanism. Like, carbon offsets, can you tell us a little bit more about some of those technologies that you guys are looking at and the role that IBM can play as a Well Corporation and, you know, a leader when it comes to technology to help Advance those.
Geez. Yeah, so there's a set of areas that we are deeply engaged in. Obviously we are a maker of computer equipment and so you know, the the Mainframe in our other Technologies are much more efficient than the traditional x86 kind of data center infrastructure. So our products themselves have a real advantage and back to what I said, it's nice when you can build a strategy for your company, this value creating that's aligned We be able to go out and talk about the benefits of that. It's important.
But beyond that, broadly, we are deeply involved in Quantum. We're deeply involved in Ai and in Computing and blockchain. And so those become key building blocks to address in the problem. So I'll come back specifically to removal in a second but along the way things like we're using Quantum working with Mercedes to build more efficient batteries, right? So again that's using our research capability around Deals with our capability around quantum.
And directly working with other industrial companies to solve those problems. We are using AI in our products around Supply Chain management, Facilities Management. You know, again, is products to be able to go out and help other companies understand their usage and be able to reduce usage of energy. The further out things that we're doing is we have a whole climate initiative that we've kicked off. And, you know, because that I be I m not only kind of builds.
Heaters. We actually design the core underlying infrastructure and semiconductors that requires deep Material, Science, expertise, and that deep Material Science, expertise combined with, again, our Computing capability and modeling capability around Quantum. And AI think puts us in a unique position to work with others. And we are doing this on how to develop materials that can do, you know, capture of carbon directly out of the atmosphere. And what we Don't have that done.
One of the reasons we feel confident that whatever residual carbon is left in the from IBM by 2030 that we will have Technologies by then to be able to remove those based on the research that we're doing in the Partnerships that we have. Yeah, and I think those
Negative emission Technologies are going to be so essential there in many ways. The Panacea to achieving this, right. But the challenge is you know, a lot of companies are not willing to take that first step and be the Trailblazer to help bring those costs down, right? You need to see a greater scale up of these Technologies in order for more companies to kind of adopt them. So, I do applaud IBM, kind of looking in, you know, internally and looking at some of its internal expertise as a, you know, in a hardware company and an infrastructure company to you. Help scale up those Technologies.
Yeah, one other thing I would say about that though is you know when you're looking to drive Innovation you don't know exactly when and how it's going to emerge and so setting a context for Innovation to happen. Appropriately is important. And I think one of the things that we've been heavily advocating for is, is carbon tax because that's a price on carbon. And whether it's IBM or the Myriad other innovators out there having the right signals to understand where and how to invest, we feel. Important for Innovation to happen, right? You know, it
See the sale. Let's go plunk, you know, a billion dollars of money and research for XYZ and but those large centrally planned Investments rarely are the enabling sets of technologies have to build upon each other, that ultimately kind of create the breakthroughs. And so we do think creating the context with the right set of incentives is important, which is why we've also been heavily advocating for a carbon tax as well. We can get into the direct merits or around that know different Industries differ. But we do think in terms of saying the context for Innovation to happen.
It's important that we set the right economic signals in that. And again I absolutely agree with you Innovation is going to be so important to ultimately achieving these goals. Yeah. Yeah.
Halsey landscape Xavier after you. I'm sorry, one of the points that I would like to highlight the based on your comment. Jim is for many people. When we talk about huge, we talk about Innovation. It sounds like a remote unreal world but what we believe at Schneider Electric today is that most of the Technologies are already existing that will allow to decarbonize at scale. The existing installations, it may not be sufficient to take us all the way from Int 21 to.
250, but we still have, let's say a really long time to be able to come up with additional technical technology additional Innovation. But what we can do in the meantime is we are advocating if you want a strategy of all electric and All Digital as much as possible, right? And this is way or more than enough to take us into on to the path of decarbonization for for many years already. So what we are trying to do, Everywhere is,
Approach the carbonization is relatively simple. When you think of it, we want to move to electricity. We want to Leverage The Power of digital and we want to use clean energy. The problem of in today's world, is that still 40% of the electrical energy is still, it's a powered by coal, for example, which is one of the dirtiest sources of energy. So it's not good enough. If you want to switch the installations to an electrical world and leveraging, The new technology, what?
Better is to accelerate the move to renewable Technologies, first, sorry to clean energy first, right? That's number one, sustainable energy. And second to look at for all the existing installations which is every single building, every single industrial site, we have today, will probably still be in operation, 30 40, 50 years from today. So what is at stake for all of us? Right now is to implement as fast as possible Energy Efficiency. Is systems and solutions.
Most of them equipped with the heavy, let's say content in digital and software. But in order to do smart management of the existing installations and this is going to lower the bar very significantly in terms of energy consumption and if at the same time, we can switch to clean sources of energy. A lot of that Journey will be achieved. Of course, it will not include those sectors that we call hard to Abate, typically, sectors, like salmon, like steel, like oil and gas. For which may be the solution.
Might be of a different nature. But at least for most of the installations that are, let's say, welcoming and all electric world, the solutions are available right now and there is no and the, and the profitability around it is clear, right? So there's no need to wait for and hypothetical new technology 10 years from today which is going to be the magic wand. It's already existing. So is between coats just a matter of scaling it up. Up. So for me, I thought it was an important message.
Each 222 channel to the audience.
Save your I think that's exactly right. I mean so much of the of the work that we're doing with our clients is very simple things like using AI to, you know, turn on and off your lights or components of facilities where those need to happen, how you route Vehicles. Most appropriately mean there's whole sets of Technologies like that I call them sustaining technology is not necessarily breakthrough Technologies, but they can have such a massive impact. It's not really Star Wars that we're talking about here, right? It's just continuing to make progress. Progress getting smarter and how we work and using Technologies to help do that.
Um, is absolutely critical. You know, it was the stat in the United States, at least the average cars, use 90 minutes a day. Well, if you can use Technologies and sharing and others to make that four hours, you know, just the residual, the supply chain impact of that can be huge. And that's more of a pithy example, but ability to better use our Assets in a more effective way and be able to shut down things when they're not being using use intelligence to do that, can take us a long way to reaching our goals.
Absolutely. In simple terms, the way we present it is, we say technology, per se, a digital software Etc allows the user to make better decisions, right? And it's really simple and common-sense, nothing technical about it, but it's a lot of a lot of very simple points to understand, but thanks to the technology. We are now in a position to get that picture that get that information so that the operator, the manager with controlling a site now knows, You know what, all the options available whereas yesterday.
It was it was it was like a unclear, right? No we didn't know what was happening. And there was a worry about, you know, switching off that the entire facility, which, of course we have negative impacts in terms of productivity on time, Etc. So now we can do much better than that. Thanks to technology.
Yeah, and maybe let's stick on that that point of technology and kind of move to our final phase here because we only have a few minutes left but I think we need to move away from this man. Shall I write that setting in that zero goals, just is just good for the planet. That's the only reason that we do it, right? You guys are both businessmen. Right? What what opportunities you know and I think people need to start pitching net zero more as a proactive strategy that you can use to unlock new customers, create new product lines and then generate new revenue streams, right? So, maybe sticking on this technology front Schneider is also a technology provider as
Of course IBM. Maybe I'll start with you Xavier. What ways is Schneider kind of diversifying its product brand and its product line with Net Zero to attract new customers and create new Revenue. But when clearly a tough guy like this, this transformation didn't start yesterday and and you know, all those new possibilities, you know, for unlocking the technology came are coming from digital. So we've been very, very strong Advocates of digitization in everything that we do. Do one of the specifics of Schneider is because
Large, let's say industrial companies. Well, we have developed a number of solutions, all software-based. Basically, to be able to have new functionalities, such as preventive, maintenance to be able to kind of simulate. What will happen in the process in our own premises first. Before we go to our own customers. So, going with Schneider technology is already proven, we are not using our customers if you want as a lab testing kind of thing. Basically, you buy it and if it works great, if it
