DECARBONIZE
Our commitment to invent, deploy, and service the technology to help decarbonize and electrify the world.
Leading Goals and metrics
Improve the trajectory of carbon intensity for near-term impact
Innovate toward our 2050 Scope 3 net zero ambition for use of sold products
DECARBONIZE
Our Progress Towards Our Leading Goals and Metrics
Our leading goals and metrics provide focus to our strategy, helping to focus our efforts where it matters most. Each goal is designed to drive progress across the whole organization and enable more transparent reporting. Find out about the progress we made towards our leading goals in 2024.
Goal 1
Improve the trajectory of carbon intensity for near-term impact
2024 PROGRESS
New power generating capacity of our equipment brought online is ~20% below the global average carbon intensity of the existing grid
Goal 1
Improve the trajectory of carbon intensity for near-term impact
The 31 GW of new power generating capacity we brought online in 2024 had an estimated carbon intensity of 368 g CO₂/kWh during its first full year of operation. We compare our carbon intensity to the global average carbon intensity of the existing grid, as indicated by IEA's World Energy Outlook 2024.
Our avoided carbon metric also reflects the potential for 31 GW of generating capacity to help avoid an estimated 27 million metric tons per year of CO₂ emissions based on the first full year of operation when compared with the next likely alternative in each location had that capacity not been added.
If and when the infrastructure and policy are in place to support use of hydrogen or deployment of carbon capture at scale, the carbon capability for the generating capacity we added in 2024 has the potential to be 146 g CO₂/kWh once configured, which could further improve the trajectory for carbon intensity over time. We advocate for infrastructure and policy that supports continued decarbonization of generating capacity, which we believe is likely to lag technology readiness.
Goal 2
Innovate toward our 2050 Scope 3 net zero ambition for use of sold products
GE Vernova’s ambition to be net zero for emissions associated with the use of our sold products by 2050 remains a priority as we focus on areas of greatest impact.
We acknowledge that advances in technology alone cannot achieve our net zero ambition without significant global investment in the infrastructure and policies required to support deployment at sufficient scale. For example, we believe hydrogen and CCS are currently the most viable ways to decarbonize gas in the medium term. However, there are technical, regulatory, financial, and commercial considerations that can affect the timing and scaling of these solutions, and enable hydrogen use in the turbines we sell. Public-private collaborations are instrumental in achieving this ambition.
| LIFETIME CO₂ EMISSIONS FROM USE OF SOLD PRODUCTS (SCOPE 3, CATEGORY 11) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Net (MMT CO₂) | 337 | 414 | 293 |
| Gross¹˒² (MMT CO₂) | 2,063 | 1,118 | 796 |
| |||
OUR 2024 PROGRESS
Following our spin-off as a standalone company in April 2024, we considered feedback from stakeholders, reviewed and updated how we calculate and report CO₂ emissions as GE Vernova, and strengthened the rigor with which we collect and examine our emissions data for reporting.
As a result of stakeholder input and feedback, we also continue reporting both net and gross lifetime CO₂ emissions from use of sold products as top-line metrics in our Sustainability Report. Our estimated lifetime net CO₂ emissions from use of sold products in 2024 are 293 MMT, a 13% decrease from 2019. Our estimated lifetime gross CO₂ emissions from use of sold products in 2024 are down 61% from 2019, primarily due to our exit from selling new steam turbines for use in coal-fired power plants.
61%
REDUCTION FROM 2019 BASELINE
We acknowledge that carbon reduction is not always linear, and can expect fluctuation in carbon emissions over time as policies and infrastructure are established, and new solutions are developed and deployed at scale.
Our 2050 Net Zero Roadmap
Innovations in small modular nuclear reactors, low-carbon fuels, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), and Direct Air Capture (DAC), will help make our net zero ambition a reality. We recognize that additional technologies are required, and that significant investment in infrastructure will be needed to enable deployment at scale for these technologies.
We acknowledge that our ability to meet our 2050 ambition relies upon and could be adversely affected by multiple dependencies including our ability to continue investing in breakthrough technologies, those technologies achieving expected levels of decarbonization, the ability to deploy such technologies at scale across our sold products, levels of global investment infrastructure spending, and global policies or other factors.
We are investing in the future of energy through public-private partnerships to develop, demonstrate, and scale the adoption of breakthrough technologies required to achieve our net zero ambition.
Find out more about our Scope 1 and 2 goals
Explore Conserve2020 - 2030
Making continued progress
GE Vernova businesses’ installed base grew 13%, and renewable energy and lower-carbon power generation technologies increased 16% during this period. Key emissions reduction technologies included:
Coal-to-gas switching
Onshore wind growth and capacity factor improvement (rotor diameter, height)
Hydro/nuclear build and repowering
Record-breaking gas combined cycle plant efficiencies
Advanced gas path upgrades increasing efficiency of installed gas turbines
In 2024, we saw a 61% reduction in gross Scope 3 emissions from the use of our sold products from 2019 levels, primarily due to the contributing factors listed below.
Exit the new build coal business
Wind growth and improved capacity
Reconfigure existing gas turbines and combined cycle power plants to blend some amount of hydrogen while balancing renewable natural gas blending
Integrating battery storage in aeroderivative gas turbines to increase efficiency
Advanced transmission and distribution technologies and software to enable the connection of renewable sources
We are focused on R&D to bring breakthrough technologies into service by the early 2030s to help achieve absolute emission reductions for the power sector’s path to net zero. Key technologies that we expect to deploy include:
Small modular nuclear reactors
Hydrogen gas turbine capability
Ammonia as a fuel
Post-combustion carbon capture improvements in cost, space and operating expense
Direct Air Capture (DAC)
Accelerating Breakthroughs In Innovation
GE Vernova has one of the most important roles to play in delivering the technology the world needs to make progress today to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously innovating breakthrough technologies to meet the world’s energy demands. GE Vernovaʼs Accelerators work with our businesses to enable the next generation of breakthrough technologies and support our customers with solutions to enable electrification and decarbonization.
Case Studies
Explore our Decarbonize case studies, news, and insights.
FIND OUT ABOUT THE OTHER PILLARS OF OUR SUSTAINABILITY FRAMEWORK
ELECTRIFY
Catalyze access to more secure, sustainable, reliable, and affordable electricity, and help drive global economic development.
CONSERVE
Our commitment to innovate more while using less, safeguarding natural resources.
THRIVE
Our commitment to advance safe, responsible, and fair working conditions in our operations and across our value chain.