Month: April 2024

Carbon emissions from electric generation are down 48% from 2005 levelsSince 2022, helped customers access nearly $377 million in financial support

CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 25, 2024 /3BL/ – Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) released its 2023 Impact Report, its 18th annual accounting of its progress toward its sustainable business goals. This year’s report includes highlights from its 2050 clean energy transition strategy, which strives to deliver industry-leading reliability, competitive rates for customers, and accelerated infrastructure and economic development to meet the growing needs of its more than 8 million customers.

Examples highlighted include the many ways in which Duke Energy offers customers options for controlling their energy use, as well as the assistance it provides to its customers in need. Over the past two years, the company has helped customers access nearly $377 million in financial support through a dedicated agency team of customer advocates. It also has made investments in its grid that has resulted in more reliable service to its customers. In 2023, smart, self-healing grid technologies helped Duke Energy’s customers avoid more than 1.5 million power outages, saving approximately 3.5 million hours of total outage time.

In pursuing its clean energy transition strategy, Duke Energy works alongside its stakeholders as it drives toward delivering a cleaner, more diverse mix of energy sources while accounting for the significant engineering, environmental and social considerations embedded in such a transformation, one of the country’s largest in the utility sector.

“As the company executes its clean energy transition, it is assembling a sophisticated puzzle,” said Katherine Neebe, Duke Energy’s chief sustainability officer. “Each piece – energy generation and storage, grid modernization, supporting communities and working with various stakeholders, multiskilling employees and reducing carbon emissions – is essential. It’s about finding the perfect fit for each piece to create a final picture that reveals a landscape of sustainable and interconnected solutions.”

Other report highlights and insights include:

Duke Energy continues to decarbonize to meet its climate goals. The company’s carbon emissions from electric generation are down 48% since 2005 and it is on track to meet its interim 50% carbon emission reduction target by 2030. The path to net-zero is not linear. Duke Energy anticipates some fluctuations in its carbon emissions in the short term as coal is retired and other forms of generation are brought online. 
 The company is leading the industry with net-zero goals that address 95% of the company’s Scope 1, 2 and certain Scope 3 calculated greenhouse gas footprint. 
 The company continues to decarbonize its natural gas business unit with a focus on methane detection and reduction of emissions related to the gas it purchases as well as the downstream carbon emissions related to its customers’ consumption of the gas it sells. Duke Energy is also investing in renewable natural gas as an important tool to tackle greenhouse gas emissions. 
 Duke Energy advocates for policies that reduce the customer rate impacts of investments in clean energy infrastructure as well as support the energy transition, such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and federal energy tax credits like those included in the Inflation Reduction Act. 
 Duke Energy submitted 15 IIJA-funded applications to reduce the cost of developing and deploying clean energy technologies and grid improvements in an effort to maintain customer affordability. 
 The company’s economic development team, working with state and local authorities, helped attract 15,000 new jobs and $22 billion in capital investment. 
 Environmental justice is critical to engaging communities in the clean energy transition and the company is evolving this work by putting its principles in action. In addition, the team completed over 100 initial environmental justice assessments as part of a holistic approach to project development and execution as well as the development of statewide and regional environmental justice advisory councils across North Carolina. 
 As the energy sector transitions, the company is working to ensure its workforce and others in the industry are set up for long-term success. As part of this commitment, a team worked collaboratively with various groups to develop a first-of-its-kind just transition approach resource as a guide for successful engagement. Transparency and communication will help the company achieve the most equitable solutions. In 2023, the company and its Foundation provided $120,000 in employee-led giving to benefit coal plant communities. 
 Inclusive actions drive business outcomes to create a workplace where everyone thrives. To deliver reliable products and services that meet community needs, the company depends on a skilled and diverse workforce and continually evolves its hiring practices to attract qualified professionals.

How the company mitigates the risks associated with its business, while at the same time creating value for its employees, customers and communities, is foundational to creating lasting impact. It takes time to work through all of the complexities of the clean energy transition, and the company is focused on these opportunities every day.

Duke Energy

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America’s largest energy holding companies.

The company’s electric utilities serve 8.4 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own approximately 54,800 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas utilities serve 1.7 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky.

Duke Energy is executing an ambitious clean energy transition, keeping reliability, affordability and accessibility at the forefront as the company works toward net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050. The company is investing in major electric grid upgrades and cleaner generation, including expanded energy storage, renewables, natural gas and nuclear.

More information is available at duke-energy.com and the Duke Energy News Center. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook, and visit illumination for stories about the people and innovations powering our energy transition.

Contact: Shawna Berger 
24-Hour: 800.559.3853 
Twitter: @DE_ShawnaB

View original content here.

As the green economy evolves, digital skills are becoming increasingly essential in green roles. IBM and The Burning Glass Institute unveiled new insights on how green and digital jobs increasingly overlap, creating demand for workers with digital skills in the green economy and for those who deploy core green skills across various sectors.

As technology continues to play a significant role in the green sector, workers must continue to develop their digital skills to remain competitive and contribute to the growth of sustainable practices. For example, forestry and environmental science technician roles increasingly require skills in coding and working with machinery using software for automation, replacing significant amounts of potentially dangerous and physically demanding manual tasks. Advances in AI also need energy efficiency and overall energy management skills.

IBM SkillsBuild offers courses and credentials in sustainability and digital skills available for free to all learners.

Explore IBM SkillsBuild sustainability offerings: https://skillsbuild.org/adult-learners/explore-learning/sustainability

Read the full paper: https://ibm.biz/BdmscG

April 25, 2024 /3BL/ – Ceres celebrates the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s newly released power plant standards as a key policy that will ensure the nation is powered by abundant, reliable, affordable low-carbon energy.

“By reducing climate pollution from new and existing fossil power plants, the EPA’s final standards will position the U.S. power sector to deliver cleaner energy at a time when electricity usage is rising across the economy,” said Dan Bakal, senior program manager for climate and energy, Ceres. “These standards will meet the needs of businesses and their investors as they seek clean energy solutions to reduce costs, remain at the leading edge of innovation, and lower the risks of climate change.”

“Guided by the historic incentives in recent federal legislation, along with strong demand from investors and companies, the U.S. is in the midst of a clean energy boom that is making affordable, reliable, and homegrown clean power more accessible across the country,” said Zach Friedman, director of federal policy, Ceres. “We applaud the EPA for finalizing robust power plant emissions standards that will help ensure the U.S. maximizes the opportunity to lead the world in building an advanced and abundant clean energy economy.”

Ceres and the companies it works with were major advocates for strong 111(b) and 111(d) standards throughout the EPA’s rule-making process.

In 2023, dozens of leading businesses submitted a letter calling for the EPA to finalize the most robust standards to maximize the climate, public health, and economic benefits from reduced climate pollution.

“As the costs of the climate crisis and the cost-effectiveness of clean energy have each become increasingly clear, so too has the need for a more rapid transition in the power sector towards affordable, reliable American-made decarbonized energy,” the businesses wrote in the letter. “Moreover, these standards are achievable and will provide the clarity and certainty that the economy — and that we as major power sector customers and investors — need.”

The Clean Energy Group — a coalition of power providers serving more than 100 million Americans over 47 states — submitted a separate letter in 2023 supporting the EPA’s role in reducing greenhouse gas pollution from power plants.

Ceres Senior Program Director for Climate and Energy Dan Bakal also testified to the EPA in 2023, calling for strong standards that “will help strengthen our economy and ensure that the United States remains a global leader in clean energy.”

The EPA built its new standards on an agency forecast for the growth of technological innovation, especially for carbon capture and storage technology. Recent research published by Ceres shows that throughout its history, the EPA has been highly effective at forecasting technological progress and the feasibility of newly implemented standards, and that new standards help provide regulatory certainty to drive that progress, innovation, and growth.

The power sector makes up 25% of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., and power plants are the nation’s second-largest source of climate pollution. To meet U.S. climate goals, it is essential to not only reduce pollution from the electricity necessary to meet current needs in the U.S., but to also add enough additional clean power to meet projected growth in future demand. That includes growth in parts of the economy such as vehicles and building appliances that are moving toward electric power to reduce their costs and climate impacts, and new advanced manufacturing spurred by recent federal incentives.

The EPA’s new standards apply to existing coal-powered plants and new gas-powered plants; additional EPA action for existing gas-powered plants is expected in the future, and Ceres will continue to engage investors and companies in support of robust standards.

About Ceres

Ceres is a nonprofit organization working with the most influential capital market leaders to solve the world’s greatest sustainability challenges. Through our powerful networks and global collaborations of investors, companies, and nonprofits, we drive action and inspire equitable market-based and policy solutions throughout the economy to build a just and sustainable future. For more information, visit ceres.org and follow @CeresNews.

Media Contact: Helen Booth-Tobin, booth-tobin@ceres.org