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In 2017, SUEZ is the only French company in the Utilities sector that appears in the A List of the CDP extra-financial rating agency. This result represents a sign of recognition, but more importantly, an encouragement to continue our efforts in the fight against climate change.
Two years after the COP 21 and the publication of our commitments to the climate, which now form an integral part of SUEZ s strategic Roadmap for 2017-2021, the time has come to take stock of our progress.
Our primary goal is to reduce our own carbon footprint. In 2016, SUEZ emitted 7.95 MtCO2e, compared with 8.15 in 2015. This result is in line with the Group s ambition to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30% in all its activities by 2030. This result can be explained
by gains in energy efficiency in the water activity, or by the fact that a growing number of our sanitation or waste processing units are now energy self-sufficient. We have also committed to avoiding more than 60 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by our customers by 2020. Almost 19 MtCO2e were avoided in 2015 and 2016, representing 31% of our total commitment over 6 years. These results have been achieved by deploying our circular economy solutions, by speeding up plastics recycling (547 kt in 2016, versus 402 kt in 2015) and by producing more renewable energy (6.25 TWh in Europe in 2016, compared with 5.86 TWh in 2015).
SUEZ intends to give as much importance to its efforts to adapt, as to those to mitigate. Because the consequences of global warming
on the availability of water, and therefore on agriculture, food, health and the economic development of our regions are immense. We made a promise to encourage water-saving. Between 2014 and 2016, the equivalent of the water consumed by a town with 466,000 inhabitants was saved, thanks to the deployment of smart water technologies in the networks and in homes.
We are also investing in adaptive solutions to help farmers in the fight against repeated droughts, for example by proposing remote irrigation control systems, or to protect populations and urban infrastructures with forecasting and real-time management tools for extreme rainfall. At a time when we urgently need to speed up our actions, SUEZ has committed to increasing its
a positive first review of progress of our commitments to the climate