Forecasting Nature’s Footprint: Co-Building Biodiversity Metrics for Tomorrow’s Electricity Mix

The French electricity system is undergoing a profound transformation to achieve carbon neutrality targets by 2050. As part of this transition, the French transmission operator, RTE, has published several reports whose environmental analyses have primarily focused on greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021, RTE’s "Energy Pathways to 2050" [1] explored various decarbonization scenarios and their environmental impacts (greenhouse gas emissions, use of resources, land occupation, etc.) but did not sufficiently address biodiversity. To address this gap, RTE initiated a multi-stakeholder Working Group (WG) in 2022 to develop a sectorspecific framework for assessing the biodiversity footprint of the electricity system, encompassing production, transmission, distribution, and waste management.