Financing the energy transition

The Danish energy company Ørsted is known to many by its previous name, Dong Energy. In 2017, the decision was made to rebrand the business after the Danish scientist Hans Christian Ørsted, and for a simple reason: Dansk Olie og Naturgas A/S no longer owned any assets in either oil or natural gas. The change was massive for a company that at one point ran coal, oil and natural gas power stations responsible for half of Denmark’s CO₂ emissions, not to mention those resulting from the oil and gas extracted by the company on its North Sea rigs. By 2018 though, 75% of Ørsted’s total energy generation came from renewable sources – by 2025 it will be 99%. Since 2006, coal consumption has been reduced by 81% and by 2025 the company is targeting a drop in the total carbon intensity of its energy generation of 98% – a tremendous turnaround.
 
In the midst of this rebirth, in 2016, the company went public with the largest-ever IPO in Denmark and the second largest in the world that year. In just 10 years an entirely new firm had been born with a new attitude to energy. 

In this podcast episode Euromoney will examine what the energy industry can learn from the Ørsted story. We look at how financial markets can support the industry's transition towards low-carbon; the roles of investment and divestment in addressing low-carbon goals; and why there is both an environmental and economic imperative to appraise the risks of climate change, and take action to prevent it.