(Wednesday 30th April) Today, responsible investment charity ShareAction has published new research highlighting the critical role industrial gas companies and their investors need to play to drive the transition to renewable energy. The often overlooked industrial gas sector is one of the world’s most electricity-intensive industries, but ShareAction’s new report shows the sector is not acting swiftly enough to reduce emissions from its energy use.
The biggest companies in the industrial gas sector are some of the world’s largest electricity consumers, with leading companies like Linde and Air Liquide each consuming more electricity than tech giants like Google or Microsoft. Currently, these companies’ energy use comes largely from fossil fuels, resulting in high levels of emissions.
ShareAction’s research reveals that industrial gas companies can make deep cuts to their energy emissions today, paving the way for faster decarbonisation across the global electricity system. Yet these companies currently lack ambitious targets and strategies for transitioning to renewables.
The report highlights the steps needed to reduce energy emissions in the sector and urges companies to take swift action at a critical time when the impacts of the climate crisis are already devastating lives around the world.
Jackie Garton, Corporate Climate Senior Campaign Manager at ShareAction, said: “The industrial gas sector is one of the most electricity-intensive industries, making it a vital sector in the global transition to net zero.
“Crucially, investors are concerned about the long-term risks to their portfolios from climate change. If industrial gas companies don’t rapidly decarbonise their operations to help preserve a safe climate for future generations, investors need to step in and hold them accountable as part of a responsible investment approach that considers people and planet.”
The industrial gas sector is responsible for the highly energy-intensive production of gases like hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. They play a critical role in the global economy, providing for example essential products such as medical oxygen and anesthetics to hospitals and oxygen for steel production.
The technologies needed for the sector to rapidly reduce its energy emissions are already widely available and commercially competitive. Yet companies like Linde, Air Liquide and Air Products, who together account for more than 70 per cent of the global market share, are not doing enough to address their dependence on fossil fuels.
While Air Liquide is significantly ahead of its peers in electrification investments and procurement of renewable energy, our research shows that all three companies need to speed up their transition. Higher levels of renewable energy use will help companies address risks from fossil fuel price volatility and exposure to emerging carbon pricing in key markets.
Notes to editors
Working with investors from the Chemical Decarbonisation Investor Initiative, which comprises 44 investors with over $9.5 trillion in assets under management, ShareAction will be engaging with large industrial gas companies on how they can reduce their energy emissions.
