LeasePlan commits to science-based targets to combat climate change
​​​​​​​LeasePlan today announces that it commits to setting science-based GHG reduction targets across all emission scopes to prevent the most dangerous effects of climate change and to align with the emissions reduction pathways of the Paris Agreement.
The announcement comes on World EV Day, a global campaign aimed at accelerating the transition to zero emission electric vehicles around the world.
LeasePlan has already committed itself to achieving net zero emissions from its funded fleet by 2030 (scope 3), and today’s announcement is an important milestone in LeasePlan’s journey to achieve net zero emission across its operations globally. LeasePlan is a founding member of The Climate Group’s EV100 initiative, launched around the UN General Assembly in September 2017 to promote EV uptake among the world’s largest companies.
The time for vague and unclear corporate promises on climate change is over. The only way to fight climate change is by setting clearly-defined and measurable science-based targets –and we call on other responsible global corporations to do the same and align their ambitions with the latest climate science. The IPCC’s recent report shows without any doubt that we are facing an urgent and existential climate emergency so the time for action is now.
Key highlights of LeasePlan's sustainability strategy include:
- Increasing EV uptake globally: orders for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids increased to 17.4%% in Q2 2021, supported by the pan-European rollout of our EV solution. Launched at UN COP23 in 2017 and now available in 20 countries, LeasePlan’s EV offering provides everything needed to start electric, including access to personal charging points at home and at work.
- Green Finance Framework: this year LeasePlan launched its fourth Green Bond, attracting an additional EUR 1 billion in investment to help finance and refinance our growing portfolio of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV).
- LeasePlan Energy: a smart charging solution for EVs. LeasePlan has entered the energy market with the launch of a smart charging solution, which enables customers to save money and reduce their use of gray energy.
- Enhanced sustainability disclosure: today’s announcement to commit to setting science-based targets is the next step in LeasePlan’s increasingly comprehensive sustainability disclosure process, which will be expanded on in our upcoming Sustainability Report.
Notes
- The SBTi defines the state of net-zero emissions for companies as reaching a state of no impact on the climate resulting from the organization’ GHG emissions by 2050 at the latest
- Reaching a status of science-based net-zero emissions implies the following two conditions:
- Companies must attain a level of minimum emissions in the value chain through a series of science-based targets consistent with the depth of abatement achieved in scenarios that limit warming to 1.5°C with no or limited overshoot
- Companies must neutralize the impact of any source of residual emissions that remains unfeasible to be eliminated by permanently removing an equivalent amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide
