Limiting climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. The transition to a new, sustainable energy system is essential in this respect. As a grid operator, we play a key role in enabling this transition. At the same time, our activities also generate greenhouse gas emissions. We therefore seek to reduce these emissions through sustainable choices and clearly defined objectives.
We are amidst the energy transition. By continuing to expand our grids, we enable customers to switch to sustainable energy sources and help achieve the Paris climate goals. By meeting our greenhouse gas reduction targets, we help to reduce emissions and slow global warming. In addition, we are exploring sustainable alternatives for transmitting a cleaner energy mix, such as biomethane and hydrogen.
The changing climate also directly impacts our own operations. Extreme weather events increase the risk of power outages, making resilience ever more important. We are therefore taking targeted measures to mitigate these risks. Our climate adaptation policy is designed to limit the impacts of climate change on our infrastructure and operations.
In this chapter, we report on the progress of our climate mitigation transition plan and explain the measures we are taking to limit climate change. We also provide insight into our CO₂ footprint and energy mix.
Finally, this chapter addresses the EU Taxonomy requirements. For further details, see the EU Taxonomy.
Within the context of climate change, we have identified the following impacts, risks, and opportunities:
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Environmental |
Impact, risk or opportunity |
Value chain |
Time frame |
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Material topic |
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Climate change adaptation |
Potential negative impact: Flooding and/or extreme rainfall can disrupt the supply of materials needed for investments and grid expansion, cause equipment failure or damage, and lead to delays or interruptions in energy supply to customers. |
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Potential risk: Flooding and/or extreme rainfall can cause damage to above-ground assets (particularly pipes, cables and transformer stations). This may result in higher operating costs, the deployment of emergency response services and/or potential reputational damage. |
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Climate change mitigation |
Actual negative impact: GHG emissions from gas leakages, grid losses and emissions from value chain components and internal operations have a negative impact on climate and biodiversity. |
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Potential risk: Reducing GHG emissions requires investment in measures that put pressure on achieving the ‘affordable |
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Potential opportunity: Reducing GHG emissions could have a positive impact on attracting financing by demonstrating environmental responsibility. |
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Energy |
Actual negative impact: Grid losses are associated with greenhouse gas emissions. |
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Actual positive impact: Expanding the electricity grid helps improve the energy mix, resulting in lower GHG emissions. |
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Actual positive impact: The transition from fossil fuels to sustainably generated electricity requires grid expansion as well as alternatives such as district heating. |
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Actual risk: The inability to meet the growing demand for green energy transmission and the expansion of the electricity grid could result in the loss of investors and/or access to capital. |
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Climate change |
Actual negative impact: Accelerating the replacement of infrastructure leads to higher costs and increased waste for society in the short term. |
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Potential negative impact: Delays in upgrading or reinforcing infrastructure could have a negative impact on the pace of the energy transition and the achievement of Europe's climate change targets. |
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Potential positive impact: Expanding and reinforcing the electricity grid enables the phasing out of fossil fuels, contributing to the sustainability of the Netherlands. |
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