Press release | 25 Jan, 2013

Energy utility RWE and IUCN join forces for nature

Essen, Germany/Gland, Switzerland, 25 January 2013 – Today, Germany’s number one power producer RWE and IUCN signed a three-year agreement on biodiversity management at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The aim is to further integrate protection of biological diversity into the corporate business decisions of the company.

Photo: Energy LI

Photo: IUCN Photo Library © Marcelo Del Pozo

“In our increasingly populous and urbanized world, global energy demand continues to soar,” says Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN Director General. ”At the same time, we are losing biodiversity faster than ever before. How can we satisfy our present and future energy needs without jeopardizing nature, our life support system? This is the challenge that IUCN and RWE will address together.”

IUCN´s work focuses on three key areas: valuing and conserving nature, ensuring effective and equitable governance of nature´s use and deploying nature-based solutions to global challenges in climate, food and development. RWE has wide experience in the protection and restoration of ecosystems, especially in the established business fields such as the operation of grids but also in oil and lignite mining.

The agreement aims to combine IUCN’s conservation expertise and access to experts and the environmental NGO and government community with RWE’s business knowledge, energy operations on the ground and implementation capabilities. Pilot projects will evaluate the impact of energy operations on ecosystems and the feasibility to adapt the choice of technology to on-site biodiversity management. Potential initiatives that have been identified involve offshore wind power in the North Sea and solar energy in North Africa, among others.

“IUCN enjoys a high international reputation with environmental organizations, governments, scientific institutions and companies. It is the world’s authority on conserving nature and natural resources,” says Peter Terium, CEO of RWE AG. “For RWE this cooperation is an opportunity to learn from an important stakeholder and to achieve our aim to become more sustainable. We go out of our way to preserve and upgrade the habitats of native flora and fauna wherever possible.”

For more information or to set up interviews, please contact:
Ewa Magiera, IUCN Media Relations, t +41 22 999 0346, m +41 79 856 76 26, ewa.magiera@iucn.org Annett Urbaczka, RWE AG, Head of Group Press Relations, t +49 201 12 17441, m +49 162 251 53 02, annett.urbaczka@rwe.com
Brigitte Lambertz, RWE AG, Spokeswoman, t +49 201 12 15599, m +49 162 253 9344, brigitte.lambertz@rwe.com

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