The new clean energy champions are on the rise
Audio 03:41
The Assembly of Delegates met on the last day of COP21 before speeches by Laurent Fabius, François Hollande and Ban Ki-moon.
Paris, December 12, 2015 © US Department of State / Wikimedia.org
By: Dominique Baillard Follow
8 min
This Saturday, December 12, 2020 marks the fifth anniversary of the Paris agreement aimed at limiting global warming.
During a virtual summit, states must adjust their commitments.
What about the energy companies?
Publicity
The majors, the big private oil companies, are more or less taking the path of carbon neutrality.
The European groups, under the pressure of the objectives set in Brussels, almost all announced this year their strategy to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050. And the Americans are also getting started.
They are still far from giving up the exploitation of hydrocarbons, but most are converting to renewable energies.
A choice that was still questionable five years ago has become obvious.
Because in the meantime, the majors, long considered the most powerful companies in the world, have been jostled, or even overtaken by the
renewable
super majors
.
This is how the new heavyweights of green energy were called.
Most of them are European energy companies.
The heirs of the long-disregarded public electricity suppliers and distributors believed in solar or wind before others, and they took the lead over the oil companies.
Italian Enel has announced record investments to triple its renewable capacity
160 billion euros by 2030 to develop its capacities and renovate or build new electricity networks wherever it is present.
In Italy of course, but also in North America, Latin America and Africa.
Its investments in green energy for the next three years represent almost the equivalent of the combined amounts of BP, Shell and Total.
The largest Italian company today weighs twice as much as Eni, the transalpine champion of black gold.
Enel still has coal-fired power plants, but he intends to get rid of them for good within seven years.
Because Enel, like the Dane Orsted, who became the world leader in wind power, bet on renewable energy twenty years ago to get rid of their aging assets which were weighing down their reputation and their accounts.
Initially, they benefited from subsidies granted to renewable energies.
But with improved technology, renewables have gotten cheap and their investments yesterday are fueling today's profits.
Will the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus slow down or accelerate investments in renewable energies?
Clean energy and its star companies have been the big winners in containment.
The paralysis of the economy has led to the closure of conventional power plants, which have become more expensive than solar or wind farms.
The super majors have seen their stock prices soar this year while that of the majors plummeted with falling oil prices.
The American NextEra, the world's leading green energy company, even briefly exceeded Exxon Mobil's market capitalization in October.
And that momentum should continue.
Next year, investments in renewables could overtake those in fossil fuels
Even if hydrocarbons are still the major source of energy, the dynamic is on the side of green electricity.
But beware of the perverse effects of stimulus plans.
Many focus on the energy transition.
The reality is however grayer than green.
According to a group of researchers, the G20 countries have pledged $ 150 billion for clean energy but 80 billion more (234 in total) for hydrocarbons.
► In short
In New Caledonia, the Brazilian Vale announces the sale of its nickel plant to the consortium contested by the separatists.
They are opposed to the presence of Trafigura.
This commodities trading group will have a minority stake alongside Caledonian investors who will own half of the new company.
The project guarantees the 3,000 existing jobs.
►
See also: New Caledonia: despite the violence, Vale announces the controversial sale of its nickel plant
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