The Iliad Group is a fast-growing European provider of telecommunication services with main activities in France, Italy and Poland. Their operations as a mobile phone service provider include prepaid sim cards, internet access and hosting services.

Last year, the Iliad Group decided to switch to 100% renewable electricity. In France and Italy, this target has now been reached and the company is well on their way to reach this target in 2022 in Poland too.

While setting their renewable energy strategy, the company decided to show leadership and increase their support to the energy transition in Europe and worldwide by choosing 100% EKOenergy-labelled electricity. Additionally, they buy only locally produced wind energy. You can read more about how EKOenergy fits Iliad's climate strategy on our website.

We thank the Iliad Group for their trust in our work. We will use their example to promote further climate action in the energy market.

 

- Walter Delage, Head of CSR at Iliad Group

Merve Güngör has been working for EKOenergy since 2016 and this year she is one of the three finalists for the EU Sustainable Energy Awards, in the Young Energy Trailblazer category.

A public vote will determine the winner.

If you haven't voted yet, don't wait any longer. Visit the voting page of the EU Sustainable Energy Week 2021 and vote for Merve Güngör from EKOenergy.

Voting doesn’t require registration and takes less than 5 seconds! The voting closes this Friday and the award ceremony is on 25 October, on the first day of the EU Sustainable Energy Week.

EKOenergy was a proud association partner of this year's RE-Source conference too. Thanks a lot to WindEurope, SolarPower Europe and everyone involved for the great conference.

Many of the panellists stressed the importance of simplifying sourcing processes and making renewable energy procurement more impactful. You can see the highlights from the conference on our social media, particularly our LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.

Making renewable energy sourcing easier and more impactful is at the heart of EKOenergy's work. You can read more about how our ecolabel contributes to these objectives in our recent publication One label covering 5 dimensions of leadership in the transition to 100% renewable energy.

 

- Irene Espinola from Grupo Bimbo, at RE-Source 2021

Climate Action Network Europe, uniting 150 environmental organisations and groups including EKOenergy, has launched the Together for a 100% Renewable Europe campaign.

For this campaign, CAN Europe members combine efforts to support a faster, fair and participatory rollout of solar and wind energy. The campaign also touches upon the relation between energy transition and nature protection.

Together, we promote a positive narrative on solar and wind and collectively work towards removing the common barriers that are hampering their growth. On the pathway to cover the entire energy demand of all economic sectors (heat, transport, industry) by renewable energy in 2040, all our electricity should come from renewable energy sources by 2035 already. We ask policy makers both on EU and national levels to take bold and forward-looking actions to accelerate the energy transition towards 100% renewables.

 

- Steven Vanholme, EKOenergy, at the launch of the “Together for a 100% Renewable Europe” campaign.

The Nordic Relay is an initiative of the Nordic Council of Ministers. They have sent the small Nordlys statue on an expedition through the Nordic countries.

Hosted by locals and organisations, the Nordlys statue is travelling from one country to another. Citizens and organisations hosting the statue pass it on to the next initiative to symbolise Nordic cooperation.

As a nominee for the Nordic Council's Environment Award in 2019, EKOenergy has had the honour to host the Nordlys statue in Helsinki. EKO-Iciar got the statue from Noora Löfström, Åland autonomy 100 jubilee year project coordinator. We had the opportunity to record short videos to present EKOenergy and passed the statue to the Danish Embassy so that it can continue its travel route through the Nordics.

By following EKOenergy on social media, you get relevant updates with regard to the climate crisis, renewable energy and EKOenergy's activities worldwide.

Here are some recent posts:

- Solar Energy for Healthy Schools, another project supported by EKOenergy's Climate Fund. Thanks a lot to all users of EKOenergy-labelled energy! (on Twitter)
- Every year, EKOenergy finances new clean energy projects to expand the benefits of using renewable electricity to developing countries. These projects bring our world one step closer to reaching the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Our climate leaflet for one of the recent projects in Mali is now available in French. (on LinkedIn)
- Phase out all fossil fuels now!  We call on @UfMSecretariat to phase out fossil energy support now. (on Twitter)
- We're at Fridays for Future again! Asking for climate action as usual, but this time also for votes for EKO-Merve from our Secretariat! (on Instagram)

 

- Greta Thunberg, on Twitter

For the first time, the World Energy Outlook report details an achievable roadmap to keep global heating below 1.5 degrees Celsius. The report is the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s flagship annual report on global energy pathways and is used worldwide to influence trillions of dollars in investment. By making a 1.5°C scenario the benchmark, the IEA challenges governments and companies to back up lagging Paris pledges with immediate action to shift the energy system away from fossil fuels.

“The new energy economy will be more electrified, efficient, interconnected, and clean,” World Energy Outlook 2021 states. “Its emergence is the product of a virtuous circle of policy action and technology innovation, and its momentum is now sustained by lower costs,” with solar and wind now standing as “the cheapest available source of new electricity generation” in most parts of the world.

However, the transition is going too slow. “Every data point showing the speed of change in energy can be countered by another showing the stubbornness of the status quo,” the IEA writes. To shift this trend, the report calls for countries to double their current commitments to deploy photovoltaic solar and wind, along with a “huge buildout” of grid infrastructure.

For more information, see the press release of Oil Change International, the article in The Energy Mix, or the World Energy Outlook 2021 report.