Trina Solar has formally joined the global Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and signed the ‘Business Ambition’ for its 1.5°C pledge. This once again underlines the company’s commitment to helping limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5°C through its own actions to reduce emissions.
“Trina Solar has joined SBTi to better fulfill its mission of ‘Solar Energy for All’,” commented Gao Jifan, the company’s chairman. “We will draw on our strategic advantages, our strong product development and innovation capabilities and our global business presence to move as swiftly as possible toward carbon neutrality and sustainable development. Every step that Trina Solar takes will be in line with the 1.5°C pledge, and we will do our utmost to create a carbon-free world.”
December 1997 saw the signing of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the first ever international act by all countries to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Inspired by the signing of the protocol and then U.S. president Bill Clinton’s ‘Million Solar Roofs’ initiative, Gao Jifan went on to found Trina Solar, then one of the world’s first PV module manufacturers.
Trina, as a leading PV smart energy solutions provider with the vision of creating a carbon-free world, supplies its global customers with three-in-one solar solutions consisting of high-efficiency modules, intelligent trackers and power plant operation and maintenance services. As of the first quarter of 2021, the company had shipped a cumulative 70GW+ of modules, which are capable of generating around 90 billion kWh of clean-energy and reducing CO2 emissions by an annual 94.22 million tons, equivalent to the planting of 5.1 billion trees.
The SBTi was jointly launched in 2015 by the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Carbon Disclosure Project, the World Resources Institute and the UN Global Compact, setting a carbon emissions target to limit global warming of between 1.5°C and 2°C .
Trina Solar has now joined the 1.5°C initiative, which calls for a higher reductions target and stronger actions to achieve it. The company is one of only nine organisations in China to have backed the more stringent 1.5°C goal. More than 1,500 companies worldwide have become part of the SBTi, including more than one fifth of those listed in the Forbes Global 500.
