Carbon as Investment Risk—The Influence of Fossil Fuel Divestment on Decision Making at Germany’s Main Power Providers

Energies

Dagmar Kiyar²  Bettina B. F. Wittneben¹ 

[1] Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK; E-Mail:;Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Döppersberg 19, 42103 Wuppertal, Germany

关键词: carbon management;    fossil fuel divestment;    strategic decision-making;    sustainability investment;    stranded assets;    German power sector;    carbon budget;   

DOI  :  10.3390/en8099620

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

German electricity giants have recently taken high-level decisions to remove selected fossil fuel operations from their company portfolio. This new corporate strategy could be seen as a direct response to the growing global influence of the fossil fuel divestment campaign. In this paper we ask whether the divestment movement currently exerts significant influence on decision-making at the top four German energy giants—E.On, RWE, Vattenfall and EnBW. We find that this is not yet the case. After describing the trajectory of the global fossil fuel divestment campaign, we outline four alternative influences on corporate strategy that, currently, are having a greater impact than the divestment movement on Germany’s power sector. In time, however, clear political decisions and strong civil support may increase the significance of climate change concerns in the strategic management of the German electricity giants.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.