ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change is an issue of strategic and operational importance to all Enbridge businesses, regardless of where they are located.
Our targets
There has been no significant change in our internal approach to setting GHG reduction targets since our 2007 CSR Report. Our intent has been to reduce our absolute direct emissions to 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2010.
To the extent that we have already achieved and, in fact, bettered this target (26 per cent reduction in our Canadian operations as of late 2006), Enbridge’s Climate Change Steering Committee (CCSC) will be revisiting Enbridge’s target-setting process to accomplish three objectives:
- Determine a revised target for Enbridge’s Canadian-based operations;
- Evaluate the degree to which our planned new projects will affect our GHG footprint;
- Develop targets that include emissions from the U.S. assets that we operate.
These activities will occur within the context of other GHG management activities, including the development of a Carbon Data Management System (CDMS) and a corporate-wide Carbon Management Strategy that will include further actions to reduce our own direct emissions. We expect these initiatives to be completed by the end of 2010.
Carbon Data Management System (CDMS) development
Enbridge continues to develop new information systems to assist in the monitoring, tracking, management and reporting of our GHG emissions.
In 2007, we began a needs assessment, working with our Information Technology department, to determine how best to bring our various carbon-related databases and reporting systems under a single umbrella as part of our CDMS.
Reporting our GHG emissions performance
Enbridge continues to publicly report our GHG emissions for our Canadian operations using the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s GHG Protocol. We do this for all emitting assets over which we retain operational control. This reporting includes mandatory responses to regulators, as well as voluntary reporting to the public and other stakeholders.
In Canada, we also continue to report annually to the Canadian Standards Association’s Canadian GHG Challenge Registry. Our reports from all major Canadian business units are publicly available on the Registry’s website. Our 2007 update report gained a "Gold Champion Level Reporter" rating status, and we are preparing our 2008 report.
In the U.S., we report our GHG emissions to the American Petroleum Institute.
In 2007, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), through the Conference Board of Canada, once again invited Enbridge, as one of Canada’s 300 largest companies by market capitalization, to report on our GHG performance. We were pleased to respond to their request and the quality of our response was such that we made the CDP’s Climate Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI). The CDP is a secretariat for the world’s largest institutional-investor collaboration on the business implications of climate change. The CDP’s website is the world’s largest registry of corporate GHG emissions. Enbridge reported again to the CDP in 2008, and was again put on the CDLI.