At the heart of the climate change debate

Climate Change is now high on the public and political agenda and, as one of the UK's leading energy companies, it's at the heart of our strategy too, through Changing Energy.

We believe we have a responsibility to help lead the UK into a new low carbon era. We were the first energy company to commit to a carbon reduction target and our aim is for a 10% reduction in carbon intensity by 2012 against a 2005 baseline - that's on top of 25% reduction we've achieved since 1990. We want to influence other companies too, so we've joined the Prince of Wales' Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change. Formed during the UK presidency of the G8, this group of like-minded companies shares best practice on climate change solutions. The group led the recent call for a long term framework to be delivered from the United Nations climate change talks in Bali - signed by over 150 companies.

Contributing to wider policy on climate change is challenging. We believe it needs a concerted effort and so we're committed to having an open and honest dialogue about the way forward. This applies to both the energy sector and the wider economy so that we can all tackle the climate challenge together. To this end, we hosted a climate change workshop during 2007 to set out our position and to listen to feedback from a range of stakeholders including academia, Government and non-governmental organisations.

We can't expect to influence others unless we are prepared to lead by example. So, we've been working with the environmental charity Global Action Plan (GAP) to build on the enthusiasm of our employees for all things green and create 'environmental champions'. Trewin Restorick, founding director of GAP, commented that: "A number of interest groups seek to polarise the issue by picking on particular issues without seeing the bigger picture. It is to E.ON's credit that they have been one of the leading companies in seeking to have a mature debate on the wider challenge of tackling climate change."

Being prepared to engage in an open forum, for example through speeches at industry conferences and interviews with the media, is another way we seek to communicate the challenge.