COP28: a COP of delivery

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COP28: a COP of delivery

For the last two weeks, some of our key senior leaders have been at the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai, the first-ever global stocktake of where the world is on its journey to mitigating the impact of global warming under the Paris Agreement.

Their focus: creating visibility around the critical and enabling role our solutions play in decarbonising the aviation, maritime and industrial sectors, and engaging with global government and industry policymakers.

WATCH

A view from inside COP28

Purpose-built for Expo 2020, Expo City Dubai is a state-of-the-art sustainable city where COP28’s 70,000 plus diverse participants from government, private and civil society can enjoy vast outdoor spaces while coming together in a shared mission to eliminate barriers towards net zero.

Herve Morvan, Chief of Future Platforms at Rolls-Royce commented: “The amount of energy that I’ve seen here, the amount of goodwill and the levels of commitments that have been made have been quite astonishing.” This year’s COP28 represented a coming together of industries ready to take action.

Our focus for enabling a net zero future

The UN's global climate targets are critical for the key sectors we work within, with air transport passenger numbers on a steep path to doubling every fifteen years and investments into the maritime and power sectors looking to grow exponentially.

These predictions highlight the need for industry-wide collaboration to enable a massive scale-up and acceleration in sustainable technology and infrastructure. To do this, we need to work together with policymakers and regulators across the world.

At Rolls-Royce, we’re committed to being a low-carbon and digitally enabled business that can support our customers on their journey to net zero and leverage our existing relations and partnerships across private and public sectors to make change happen.

Clean power from our engines

We’re making our technology compatible with clean non-fossil or low-carbon fuel alternatives. Today, all of our in-production Trent aero engines are compatible with 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and some of our leading Rolls-Royce mtu gas engines have been successfully tested for use with 100% hydrogen. We’re also the first manufacturer to have nearly all our diesel engines approved for sustainable fuels.

In November 2023, our Trent 1000 engine powered the world's first Transatlantic flight on 100% SAF on Virgin’s historic Flight100, demonstrating how SAF is already in action and helping us on our way to a greener future.

Rolls-Royce’s Yuri Jongkind and John Kelly, attending a nuclear energy side event at COP28, pictured with (centre) Andrew Bowie MP, UK Minister for Nuclear and Networks at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Scaling clean energy solutions

Sustainable technologies and solutions won’t work without the widely affordable and available clean energy to power them. Commitments made during COP28 to transition away from fossil fuels such as tripling nuclear capacity and an agreement which saw 193 countries signing up for new policies on SAF show the increasing demand of the future.

The Rolls-Royce SMR (Small Modular Reactor) is our 470MW cost-competitive and scalable nuclear power plant that can provide clean power to reinforce the grid and industrial applications or even produce green hydrogen for SAF. Alongside it, our scalable battery energy storage solutions provide the opportunity to store more than 100MW of power giving industry further energy independence.

Continuous innovation

As we look ahead to the future, continuous innovation will be needed to keep us ahead of our targets. Continued efficiency gains in our UltraFan engine – the world's largest aero engine – make it 10% more efficient than the most efficient aero engine today (the Rolls-Royce XWB-84) and enable cleaner more efficient flights for wide- and narrow-body aircraft as well as the provision for SAF. Likewise, we’re working on methanol marine engine development that will help to decarbonise shipping.

A COP of collaboration and delivery

COP28 has also provided our team with the opportunity to meet stakeholders from around the world.

After an air transport industry panel involving key stakeholders like IATA and Abu Dhabi Airport, Omar Ali Adib, Vice President for Customers in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia said: “It’s wonderful to take part in these sorts of discussions with industry experts and like-minded people to share our ideas to drive towards our net zero ambitions”, describing it as an open dialogue where Rolls-Royce could highlight the vital role our solutions are already playing.

Daniel Chatterjee, Director of Sustainability, Technology Management & Regulatory Affairs spoke with representatives from Namibia keen to understand more about our microgrid technologies amidst grid instability. Helen Kennett, Director, Government Relations engaged with influential government ministers and policymakers, speaking of the event as a “COP of delivery”.

John Kelly (second from left) appearing on DXB Today to talk about Rolls-Royce’s focus on COP and net zero strategy.

John Kelly, Rolls-Royce President – Middle East, Turkey and Africa, who had the opportunity to speak on the DBX Today TV programme and the UEA’s Business Breakfast radio show about our net zero ambitions, added: “It has been a pleasure to be with an amazing team from Rolls-Royce as we explain what we are doing to achieve net zero by 2050 and collaborate with global policymakers, governments, partners, customers and investors at the event… COP28 has achieved many, many things and hopefully has us all heading back on track for net zero”.

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