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“The whole group will announce its local weather targets together with RE100 round when the brand new administration kicks off,” the supply mentioned, asking to not be recognized because of the sensitivity of the difficulty.
The supply added that Samsung had mentioned with President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s transition committee the laws and hurdles that discourage the usage of renewable power.
Samsung declined to remark, whereas the CDP, an environmental non-profit organisation that brings collectively corporations looking for to affix RE100, mentioned solely that an announcement was anticipated this yr.
“Samsung Electronics instructed us that it has notified its overseas traders that it might be part of and announce RE100 inside this yr,” Kim Tae-han, a senior researcher on the CDP Korean committee, instructed Reuters.
Yoon has additionally tapped Han Hwa-jin, a local weather specialist and out of doors director at Samsung, to function his authorities’s setting minister.
The timing of Samsung’s RE100 announcement might rely partly on the appointment of Han’s alternative on the board.
“Samsung wants the legitimacy of all outdoors administrators being current and approving the announcement,” mentioned Lee Jong-oh, director at Korea Sustainability Investing Discussion board.
Samsung has lengthy acknowledged the chance of inaction on local weather change, estimating primarily based on 2020 income that as much as 25.8 trillion gained ($20.6 billion), or 20 p.c, of its business-to-business gross sales similar to chips might be misplaced if it doesn’t change to renewable power.
“Our clients are demanding to provide merchandise utilizing 100% renewable power to realize their targets. There’s an evident danger that our gross sales could also be affected if these calls for will not be met,” Samsung mentioned in a press release posted on CDP’s web site in 2021.
It is not simply B2B clients like Apple, which buys its chips, or customers who purchase its Galaxy smartphones who’re involved about Samsung’s motion on local weather.
BlackRock, the fourth-largest institutional investor in Samsung in keeping with Eikon information, mentioned in a voting bulletin at its annual shareholders’ assembly final month that traders had solely restricted entry to info on Samsung’s inexperienced methods. It additionally criticised the board for an absence of urgency on local weather points.
Samsung Electronics has already been operating its chip factories in China and america 100% with renewable electrical energy since 2019, however they accounted for simply 10.7 p.c of its complete world power consumption in 2020.
Its chip factories in South Korea accounted for 63.5 p.c of its complete world electrical energy use in 2020, and most of its $51.6 billion in revenue final yr, however ran virtually totally on non-renewable energy.
It’s constructing its third chip manufacturing facility in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, and three extra are deliberate for town. As soon as accomplished, they’re projected to eat 21.6 TWh per yr, exceeding the whole electrical energy consumption of Busan, South Korea’s second-largest metropolis with 3.3 million individuals, in keeping with an opposition lawmaker. Samsung didn’t dispute the determine.
This raises the stakes for Samsung’s profitability in South Korea’s power coverage.
Whereas environmental teams have argued that an aggressive shift to renewables is critical to advertise economies of scale, Sonn Yang-hoon, an economics professor at Incheon Nationwide College, mentioned Yoon’s extra cautious, pro-nuclear method would assist to stabilise electrical energy costs and let Samsung maintain profitability whereas shifting in the direction of renewables.
“Nuclear energy will purchase time till renewable power will get cheaper with technological breakthroughs,” Sonn mentioned. “Samsung will bide its time till renewable power costs drop earlier than it carries out RE100 at full throttle.”
The Korea Vitality Economics Institute estimates the worth of photo voltaic and wind energy will fall as a lot as 55 p.c and 44 p.c, respectively, by 2030 from 2020.
Yoon, who gained the March 9 presidential election by the smallest margin in South Korea’s democratic historical past, goals for an power mixture of 20-25 p.c renewables and 30-35 p.c nuclear by 2030, in contrast together with his predecessor’s goal of 70 p.c from renewables and solely 6 p.c from nuclear by 2050.
Nuclear energy accounted for 29 p.c and renewable power 6.6 p.c in 2020, Electrical Energy Statistics Data System information confirmed.
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