We recognize that climate change is a global issue and that we all have a role to play in addressing it.
We believe that a low-carbon future can support a sustainable, competitive business environment while creating new opportunities for companies like Enbridge. The ability to diversify our business mix – and to substantially increase our natural gas business – was a key driver in our combination with Spectra Energy. We believe natural gas has and will continue to play a critical role in meeting society’s demand for energy and – because it is a less carbon-intensive fuel than other hydrocarbons – supporting global greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction goals. More broadly, our diversification enables us to leverage all of our company’s assets—liquids pipelines; renewable energy; and natural gas transmission, distribution and storage infrastructure—to support the transition to a low-carbon economy, while keeping pace with the world’s growing energy needs.
For more information on our renewable energy portfolio, please see our Renewable & Low Carbon Energy section of the Sustainability Report.
Our strategy to address the climate impacts resulting from our business and to support the global transition to a low-carbon economy includes: publicly tracking and reporting our efforts to reduce our energy use and GHG emissions; integrating climate considerations into key business decision making; taking an active and constructive role on new climate change policy solutions with governments, industry associations, environmental organizations and communities; exploring new lower carbon business opportunities, including our work to “green” the natural gas we distribute; and enhancing demand-side management (DSM) programs for customers of our natural gas utilities.
In this section of our Sustainability Report, we discuss our annual GHG emissions performance and management strategies but we recognize that there is growing interest from investors and other stakeholders in enhanced corporate disclosure on climate change. In 2017, the G20 Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) released its final recommendations regarding the inclusion of voluntary climate-related disclosures in mainstream corporate financial filings. In alignment with the key themes identified in the TCFD recommendations, this year we will also be releasing a separate report in which we discuss how we are addressing climate change-related risks and opportunities and the transition to a low-carbon future from a broader perspective.
5 performance objectives: