RTE’s fight against climate change
Fighting the climate change
RTE, an instrumental player in the energy transition
By modernising its grids to integrate renewable energy sources and accommodate new uses (e.g. charging of close to 4.8 million vehicles by 2028), RTE is supporting the objectives of France’s low-carbon strategy (SNBC), which seeks to achieve carbon neutrality in France by 2050. With grid modernisation plans focusing on sobriety and rationalised flow management, the company is aligned with this nation-wide effort. This is how RTE is helping to meet the objectives of the multi-annual energy plan (PPE), which – by 2035 – intends to halve the level of emissions caused by power generation.
Becoming resilient to climate change
Hurricanes, winter storms and cold spells on the one end of the scale…. heatwaves, fires, floods and rising water levels on the other. Global warming will bring about increasingly severe weather conditions. These events will affect the balance between electricity supply and demand (consumption levels and locations, effects on generation facilities) as well as affecting grid infrastructure.
The next projected supply estimate being drawn up in conjunction with stakeholders, and which determines potential supply-demand scenarios, will provide a forecast of scenarios up until 2050. It will include climate-change predictions based on scenarios developed with Météo France using the assumptions of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (GIEC) .
Furthermore, RTE is building structures that are designed to last for several decades (50 years on average). While it is thought that the grid has been able to withstand storms since making investments over a 15-year period to strengthen it mechanically, infrastructure vulnerabilities must be identified, particularly with regard to heat and water, so that the appropriate upgrades can be made. In 2019, RTE therefore decided to start work on its "resilience" project, also based on climate-change scenarios running up to 2050. RTE is currently working together with asset-management experts, data scientists and climate specialists to calculate the impact of extreme-weather events on its structures.
Bilan gaz à effet de serre et plan de transition
RTE est, en 2023, l’une des premières entreprises françaises et l’un des premiers gestionnaires de réseau de transport d'électricité européens à déposer un « plan de transition » qui présente sa trajectoire d’émissions sur quatre ans, à horizon 2026, en complément de son bilan des émissions de gaz à effet de serre 2022 (BEGES).
Le « plan de transition » d’une entreprise est l’opportunité d’accompagner la mesure de ses émissions (publiées dans son BEGES) d’actions cherchant à les réduire assorties d’objectifs en ligne avec les visées de la stratégie nationale bas carbone. La publication d’un plan de transition est obligatoire à partir de cette année.
RTE est pionnière de longue date dans la publication de ses émissions. Ainsi, RTE publie dans son rapport de gestion les bilans annuels d’émissions directes et indirectes relatifs à sa propre activité (scopes 1 et 2) et publie aussi des BEGES complets qui intègrent les émissions indirectes à l’amont et à l’aval de son activité (scope 3) tous les 4 ans depuis 2008 sur le site de l’ADEME. Selon le BEGES 2022, les émissions de RTE ont baissé de 4 % par rapport à 2018 et s’établissent à 1 022 kilotonnes équivalent CO2.
