The Shareholders’ General Meeting took place last Thursday at the CNIT in La Défense (Paris). Climate strategy was at the heart of the discussions. Can you tell us more?
Julia Maris: At ENGIE, the Climate Strategy is a priority embedded in our overall strategy. These are not just words. Since the Group adopted its "raison d’être" (purpose), our Climate trajectory has been an integral part of decision-making regarding the development of our activities.
Given today’s context, we have clearly chosen to stay the course toward our Net Zero Carbon ambition for 2045, because in a group like ours, Climate Strategy is a core component of the business model, value creation, and corporate resilience.
What is your assessment since the last vote on the climate strategy in 2022?
Julia Maris: Over the past four years, under the leadership of Catherine MacGregor, ENGIE has transformed itself to continue aligning its purpose, strategy, and operations. That’s why ENGIE can now legitimately aim to become the best energy transition by 2030, while successfully progressing toward Net Zero Carbon by 2045.
Concretely, the Group can already report that it is ahead of schedule on its commitments, having reduced its total greenhouse gas emissions by over 40% across its full carbon footprint since 2017. This progress is reflected in our activities: we are strongly committed to electrification (targeting 95 GW of renewables and storage by 2030) and to greening gas.
The strength of our climate commitments lies in the fact that they are built collaboratively with each of the Group’s Global Business Units, linking operational projections, financial performance, and decarbonization.
The General Meeting included a « Say on Climate » vote. What exactly does that mean?
Julia Maris: In 2022, two years after adopting our corporate purpose, the Board of Directors, chaired by Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, submitted our Climate Strategy to a shareholder vote during the General Assembly. Nearly 97% (96.7%) of shareholders supported our ambition to reach Net Zero Carbon by 2045 and the roadmap we presented.
At that time, we committed to submitting the strategy for a new vote three years later, as part of our transparency approach. That is exactly what we just did at this 2025 General Shareholders’ Meeting, achieving an even slightly higher approval rate of 96.9%.
You have also announced an acceleration of your commitments for 2030…
Julia Maris: We came to this General Meeting with an updated, strengthened, and clarified strategy. Building on our initial achievements, the Group decided to raise all its 2030 targets and set new intermediate milestones for 2035 and 2040, providing greater visibility for stakeholders on the path to achieving Net Zero by 2045.
This General Meeting was thus an opportunity to demonstrate that ENGIE remains firmly committed to its long-term climate strategy — and is accelerating its short-term action.
What are the key new elements of the Climate Strategy?
Julia Maris: It is built around three pillars: reducing our impacts on climate change, both internally and for our clients; adapting to climate change; and governance and steering processes to ensure the successful implementation of these objectives.
We are proud to announce a target of reducing total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 55% by 2030 compared to 2017, while simultaneously increasing the volume of avoided emissions for our clients through our green solutions (between 65 and 85 million tons of CO₂e by 2030).
Would you say that ENGIE is the best utility when it comes to carbon trajectory?
Julia Maris: Among our peers, we are the only one presenting a carbon trajectory with long-term intermediate targets (2035 and 2040) across all three scopes.
Moreover, cutting our GHG emissions by 55% by 2030 represents a massive effort. It matches the EU’s "Fit for 55" goal — but we are achieving it in a third of the time (40 years for the EU, 13 years for ENGIE)!