The path to one and a half

This article was originally published by Mauricio Gutierrez, a former NRG Energy employee, who served as President and CEO of NRG Energy.

Last updated June 21, 2023

While the NRG carbon-reduction story began over a decade ago, our goal-setting strategy deepened in 2014. Our chief operating officer at the time (now president and CEO), Mauricio Gutierrez, was responsible not only for the safe and economic operation of our company’s power fleet, but also for its environmental performance. For this reason, when the time came to set GHG emissions reduction goals, he was the natural choice to lead that steering committee.

From there, we sought to set a specific target that would unlock long-term business opportunities, including C&I partnerships with large companies that had supply-chain sustainability goals of their own. At that time, the pending Clean Power Plan was base-case ambition, and the outcome of the upcoming Paris COP21 was the standard of goal-setting excellence. To be competitive and a sector leader, we knew our ambition had to exceed both.

With the desire to lead in mind, we established goals to reduce absolute GHG emissions 50% by 2030, and 90% by 2050. We were the first in our sector, and one of the first 10 companies in the world, to receive certification by the Science-based Targets initiative in 2015, an endorsement that our ambition aligned with what was needed to achieve the 2-degree warming limit necessary to avoid the worst effects of global climate change.

We pride ourselves on listening to the best science. When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) revised its guidance to limiting warming to a 1.5-degree Celsius scenario, we took the immediate step of re-evaluating our goals, especially given that we were on track to meet our existing targets well ahead of schedule.

On September 24, 2019, we proudly announced the deepening of our already leading, scientific-based targets. Our new goals are now to reduce emissions 50% by 2025 on the way to net-zero by 2050, from a 2014 baseline.

As an organization that brings the power of energy to people and organizations, decarbonization brings with it new opportunities for us. Economywide decarbonization will largely depend on the successful electrification of high-emitting sectors like transportation and manufacturing. We believe the future of our sector is one where these customers have choices, and we want to be the organization they choose to partner with to achieve their goals.

In the nearer term, we have a line of sight to achieve our goals through continued optimization of our portfolio, along with its assets, merit order, and use.

Achieving long-term goals, like net-zero by 2050, will require new processes that weave in new technologies, competitive capital, and smart, forward-thinking policy decisions. Our legacy experience and competitive DNA make us well-positioned to capitalize on market opportunities as they become viable.