RWE : Industry Associations Climate Review

Industry Associations Climate Review 2022

Contents

Foreword from the CEO	3
Executive Summary	5
Our positions on climate change and the energy transition	6
Our engagement in industry associations	7
Our assessment approach	9
Selection of associations	9
Assessment methodology	10
Results	11
Update on associations from 2021	35
Summary and next steps	35
Contact	37
References	37
Annex	39

This report was prepared in English only and was published in April 2023. Former Industry Associations Climate Reviews have been published in 2020, 2021 and 2022. All reports are available for download on our webpage.

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Foreword from the CEO

Dear Stakeholders of RWE,

This year RWE celebrates its 125th an- niversary. On 25 April 1898, RWE was founded to supply its home city of Essen with electricity. Over the years, our product continued to be the same, but the way of how we produce it has changed drastically. Our very first megawatt hour was generated with hard coal. Later on, lignite and nuclear energy were our most important energy sources. Today it's

natural gas, wind, sun and water. And tomorrow we will rely entirely on renewable energy sources to reach our goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2040 at the latest.

As one of the leading international electricity producers, we bear special responsibility for implementing the Paris Climate Agreement. With the guiding principle "Our energy for a sustainable life" we express that this responsibility motivates us and that it shapes our entrepreneurial actions. We want to participate in the joint effort to reduce global warming to

1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial age. By phasing out coal-fired power genera- tion in a socially responsible manner by 2030 while helping to ensure that the energy supply remains reliable, we are creating the basis for our actions to be in line with this ambitious cli- mate protection target.

For the acceleration of the clean energy transition, we will invest €50 billion in green growth by the end of 2030 - in new wind and solar parks, battery storage, flexible back-up power plants and electrolysers for hydrogen production. In this way, we want to expand our green generation capacities in our core business to more than 50 GW.

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Our green growth

program will enable us to come closer to our target of being net zero by 2040.

To implement this ambitious renewable energy growth program, membership in associations that represent our interests is crucial to achieving our medium- and long-term goals.

We believe these memberships can provide significant benefits - from knowledge shar- ing, through operating and safety standards

to working with regulators and professional development. Therefore, we also expect our associations and partners to take responsibility by acting for the climate. This means a support for the Paris Climate Agreement, the recognition of climate science, the reduction of emissions through the expansion of renewable energies and the responsible phase-out of fossil fuels, the support of green hydrogen, the recognition of climate protection as a global task as well as social compensation measures for the energy transition.

This is our fourth edition of this report, outlining the results of our in-depth assessment of numerous industry associations. For this edition we have looked at renewable energy associations across the globe, after assessing conventional and broad-range associations in the previous one. It is another proof of our commitment for climate protection.

Sincerely yours,

Markus Krebber

Chief Executive Officer, RWE AG

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Executive Summary

RWE attaches immense importance to its involvement in associations and initiatives. We see many advantages in the exchange and alignment of positions; we are convinced that we can shape a sustainable future only through close collaboration. This is why we regularly publish the results of our climate review for our associations. This is our fourth Industry Association review, with a primary focus on reviewing renewable energy associations while also providing updates on critical associations from last year's assessment.

The effort we put in this assessment is worth it: This year we follow the same extended approach as last year and check six core expectations against current public documents, preferably not older than January 2022. These expectations include support for the Paris Climate Agreement as well as other climate-related positions such as support for climate science findings and a clear commitment to the expansion of renewable energies and the timely phase-out of fossil fuels. Furthermore, a stance on green hydrogen as a future enabler for the decarbonisation of many sectors, the recognition that tackling climate change is a global task and finally a commitment to social compensation measures for those who are particularly burdened by climate protection.

Using publicly available information, associations were deemed to be explicitly aligned, implicitly aligned or misaligned based on an assessment of positions and activities regarding six criteria. Overall, we perceive the alignment on the six criteria from the associations as medium. Very often, associations do not have taken an active position. This reflects that in some cases, associations have just been recently founded. There is no indication, that one of the assessed associations is taking positions against any of the six criteria.

A summary of the results can be found in Table 2 on page 40 f. Whereas we do not deem it necessary that renewables associations take an active position on all criteria, we expect them to at least explicitly support the Paris Agreement. Where we have identified significant gaps, we will further engage with associations and communicate what is missing in our view. As we value our engagement and the work of industry associations we see a trusted dialogue as the first step to clarify issues that are important to us. We will monitor and report progress on the success of our efforts in upcoming reports.

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