Guten Morgen.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. As Chairman of the Supervisory Board, I would like to open this year's Annual General Meeting of RWE AG and welcome you on behalf of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board. I am delighted that so many of you, wherever you are, are following our Annual General Meeting live on your screens. My greetings go to our shareholders and shareholder representatives, the journalists who fulfill an important task with their expert reporting, and all other interested parties. We are holding today's Annual General Meeting virtually. This was decided by the Executive Board based on the basis of the authorization approved by a large majority at the 2023 Annual General Meeting. This decision was also prompted by the positive experience of the virtual Annual General Meeting 2023.
Last year, we succeeded in transferring the central elements of an in-person AGM to the virtual format and enabled our shareholders to actively participate in the AGM flexibly from any location, efficiently, and in a resource-efficient manner. Today, we would once again like to enter into a lively dialogue with you and answer your questions live. You can exercise your rights to speak, request information, and submit motions by means of video communication via RWE's online service. I look forward to today's dialogue with you, dear shareholders. I would now like to introduce you to the participants in today's Annual General Meeting. From the Supervisory Board, I would like to welcome Eva Schubereit, whom I have asked to stand in for me as Chairman of the meeting if I am unable to attend even for a short time.
The other members of the Supervisory Board are also present, albeit in a different part of the attendance area of today's Annual General Meeting. There, I would also like to welcome the candidates proposed by the Supervisory Board as the new shareholder representatives to be elected today. That is Dr. Frank Appel, Professor Jörg Rochel, and Thomas Westphal. I will come back to the personal details in a few minutes. I would also like to welcome the members of the Executive Board: Dr. Markus Krebber, Katja van Dorn, and Dr. Michael Müller. Notary Public Dr. Ehringer will also record the minutes this year. Finally, the head of RWE AG Legal Department, Dr. Ulrich Rust, will also be present on the stage. Moreover, the company's proxies are also here on site. That's Dr. Frederike Freud and Johannes Ehan.
Now, let us now turn to some necessary regulations and important information on the organization of today's annual general meeting. The AGM was convened in due form and time by announcement in the Federal Gazette on 14 March 2024. The management's proposed resolutions were published with the agenda. At the same time, the convening notice and other documents were made available online at www.rwe.com/hv, where they are also available today during the annual general meeting. They are also available here in the meeting room. The required notifications to the group of recipients specified in Section 125 of the German Stock Corporation Act have been made in due time. In the run-up to the annual general meeting, shareholders were able to submit statements on the agenda, which were published in the online service and can also be viewed there today.
We are broadcasting the AGM in full, continuously in audio and video for the public via the internet and for registered shareholders in the online service. Shareholders can access the online service by entering the access data contained on their participation card. The Annual General Meeting will be simultaneously translated into English. You can select the language setting on our website. My introductory remarks and those of Dr. Krebber will also be recorded and will be available afterwards on the RWE website. We already published the speech transcripts of Dr. Krebber and myself on the website last Friday to enable you to better prepare for today's Annual General Meeting. The list of participants will be continuously updated during the AGM. It can be viewed shortly via the online service, and I will inform you later of the attendance.
As announced in the convening notice, I hereby stipulate that rights to information may only be exercised by means of video communication, as well as rights to speak and to make motions. Since the beginning of the annual general meeting, shareholders have been able to register via the speech button in the online service if they would like to make a statement. You will also find an appropriately labeled button in the online service for announcing a request to speak. To make planning easier, please submit your request to speak as soon as possible. Also, please indicate the topics that you would like to speak about so that I can decide whether and when to give you the floor. We also would like to ask you to enter a telephone number in the relevant field provided so that we can contact you in the event of technical problems.
During the general debate, I will call up the registered speakers in groups and ask them to enter the virtual waiting room, where we will also check if video communication will work smoothly. After I have given you the floor, you will be connected to the meeting by video and audio and will have the opportunity to speak and ask questions or submit motions. Please note that without functional video communication with image and sound, we will unfortunately have to reject your contribution or terminate it prematurely. Of course, we will endeavor to find a solution together with you in the event of any technical problems. We have carefully checked the necessary technical requirements together with the contracted service providers so that we can organize the AGM properly and without any disruptions. In the event of technical problems, please contact our service hotline.
The contact details are available on our website. If the transmission is interrupted, nevertheless, please be patient for a few minutes and check our website for more information. Voting rights can only be exercised by postal vote or by authorizing and instructing the company's proxies. Voting rights can still be exercised via the online service by postal vote or by proxy up to the time that I will specify later as part of the voting procedure. Until then, you can still change or cancel your vote. I will announce the closing of the voting procedure again in good time. I recommend that you exercise your right to vote promptly and not to wait until the last possible moment. Shareholders can use the online service to file an objection to one or more resolutions of today's Annual General Meeting with the notary's minutes until the end of the AGM.
I will remind you of the end of the objection option in good time before the end of the meeting. The voting process and the technical requirements for this are monitored and checked by the notary public, as are the functioning and reliability of the system for submitting objections. So much for the formalities and organizational procedures. Ladies and gentlemen, before we move on to the agenda, I would like to inform you about personnel changes as announced earlier. The term of office of Supervisory Board members Ute Jarholt, Professor Dr. Hans-Peter Keitel, Dr. Eva Schubereit, and Obaid Saleem will end at the end of today's annual general meeting. Item six on today's agenda therefore provides for the election of four new shareholder representatives to the Supervisory Board. We are delighted that Ms. Jarholt has expressed her willingness to stand for a further term of office. Mr. Saleem, Professor Dr.
Keitel, and Dr. Schubereit are no longer standing for re-election. Dear Mr. Saleem, dear Professor Dr. Keitel, dear Dr. Schubereit, all of you have accompanied RWE for many years. Mr. Saleem, you have been a member of the Supervisory Board since 2011. As the Lord Mayor of the City of Dortmund for many years, you have in-depth knowledge of the public sector. Your proven political expertise was particularly useful in the highly regulated energy market. You have enriched the work of the committees with your experience of how to shape and implement the distributed energy transition in a metropolitan region. Since 2013, that is also for many years, you, Professor Dr. Keitel, have been a member of the Supervisory Board as well.
As the longstanding CEO of Hochtief AG and former president of the Federation of German Industries, BDI, you brought extensive economic, international, and strategic expertise to the board and your technological expertise as well, which was very beneficial to the company. We have always greatly appreciated your sound judgments and decisions. Dr. Schubereit, you were elected to the RWE Supervisory Board for the first time in 2016. With your background as manager in various companies in the energy industry, you have brought valuable industry experience to the board and to the company. Your broad expertise has contributed to the fact that we, as a group, have been able to tackle our strategic realignment with such vigor over the past few years. As a proven financial expert, you also chaired the audit committee of the Supervisory Board until last year, which you performed with great care and diligence.
Also, as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of a former RWE group company, that is innogy SE, you also rendered outstanding services in 2018 and 2019. Dear Mr. Saleem, Professor Dr. Keitel, Dr. Schubereit, the period from 2011 to 2024 was characterized by a variety of challenges, but also by opportunities and successes. During these years, our company has had to fundamentally realign its strategy following far-reaching changes in the energy markets. Following the phase-out of nuclear energy and the accelerated phase-out of coal, RWE has undergone an unprecedented transformation. Today, the company is one of the leading providers in the field of renewable energies, with ambitious targets for actively shaping a sustainable future. You, dear gentlemen, have accompanied and supported us on this path with passion, hard work, commitment, and team spirit.
On behalf of the entire Supervisory Board, but also on behalf of our shareholders, I would like to thank you most sincerely. I am proud to have had you as members of the Supervisory Board and wish you all the best for the future. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to find the best possible candidates for the necessary new appointments to the Supervisory Board, the nomination committee began its selection process at an early stage. The basis for this was the requirements profile adopted by the Supervisory Board, which we regularly update in order to optimally reflect the competencies that RWE needs to continue on its successful course. Most recently, we added competencies in the area of sustainability to the requirements profile. The Supervisory Board proposes that Frank Appel, Professor Jörg Rochel, and Thomas Westphal be elected as new members to the Supervisory Board.
All three are recognized experts in their fields. They would like to introduce themselves to you personally today in the form of a video message. Dear shareholders, my name is Frank Appel. I'm 62 years old. I'm from Hamburg originally, and today I live close to Königswinter, born together with my wife. I have two adult children. I have a chemical background. After I got my PhD, I went to McKinsey, where I worked for seven years. At the end, I was a partner, and then from this, I moved to Deutsche Post World in order to develop the strategy at the time. After two and a half years, I became a member of the executive board, and I was 20 years in total as a member of the board and 15 years as the CEO of Deutsche Post.
I'm also a member of the Supervisory Board and the chairperson of Deutsche Telekom. RWE AG is an exciting company. It is in the process of full transformation. Electricity generation is extremely important for the success of a company, of a country, and of regions, and RWE has a very, very strong and clear strategy, and that's why I'm interested in being elected to the Supervisory Board. How can I help? Due to my experience as CEO, I am familiar with strategies. DHL is a very global company, and that's why I have experience in global business activities. Regulation is also nothing unfamiliar to me, and sustainability is something that has always been important to me as a person and a CEO, and that's why I believe that I am able to make a contribution in these four areas.
I would be delighted if you would give your consent to my election to the Supervisory Board, and I would like to thank you warmly for your trust in advance. Thank you very much. My name is Jörg Rochel. I am the president of the ESMT in Berlin, and I have the Deutsche Bank Professorship in Sustainable Finance. Together with my family, I live in Berlin, but my roots are in the region because originally I'm from the beautiful Hansa city of Soest in Westphalia. During my professional career, I had various activities in science and industry. I started with ESMT in 2007. I've been the president of ESMT since 2011, and the topics that I deal with are capital markets, corporate financing, corporate governance, and over the past few years, sustainable finance.
My practical experience, especially in the area of IPOs and M&A, plays a very important role in this regard. Exchange between practice and theory is extremely important to me, and I'm actively pushing this forward in various bodies. RWE is one of the main drivers of the green transformation and decarbonization in the energy industry. The planned investments of EUR 55 billion by 2030 are a clear sign for this. I am candidating to become a member of the Supervisory Board of RWE AG because my skills and experience will help make a contribution to this transformation. For this purpose, I would like to contribute my skills in the area of capital markets, corporate financing, with a strong focus on sustainability, my international experience, and my longstanding knowledge in the area of management development.
I would like to ask you for your trust and your support of myself as a candidate. My name is Thomas Westphal. I am the Lord Mayor of the unique city of Dortmund. Now, before I assumed this function, I was in the private industry for many years, and before that, in the economic development organization of the city of Dortmund and the metropolis of the Ruhr region. I gained experience within companies and administration and in the cooperation between the companies and municipalities. In the energy industry and in the manufacturing industry, I am very familiar, and I'm also the Lord Mayor of the eighth largest city, and I would like to contribute the experience that I've gained to the Supervisory Board of RWE.
It's important that RWE, on its path towards one of the leading providers of renewable energies globally, also has the opportunity to use the experience of the regions and the municipalities in Europe, and that's what I would like to represent in the Supervisory Board. That's why I would like to become a member, and I would like to thank you for your vote. Dear Mr. Appel, Mr. Rochel, and Mr. Westphal, thank you very much for your willingness to support the company in the next phase of its further development. Ladies and gentlemen, additional information on all candidates standing for election can be found in the invitation, and from this, you can also see the mandates in other statutory Supervisory Boards and memberships in comparable domestic and foreign Supervisory Boards of industrial companies.
Ladies and gentlemen, as part of the staggered terms of office of the Supervisory Board, a further six shareholder representatives will have to be elected to the Supervisory Board at the 2025 AGM. I, myself, will then have been a member of the Supervisory Board for 12 years, and I believe that it is good governance to not exceed this length of membership in the Supervisory Board, and the Supervisory Board has also stipulated this in the profile of skills and expertise, and that's why I will not be standing for re-election. It is then time to hand over the baton. Until then, I look forward to another year with full responsibility as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board, which will be in office after the 2025 Annual General Meeting, will have to decide on my successor.
I am convinced that the group of shareholder representatives offers sustainable candidates for this role. Ladies and gentlemen, there were also personnel changes on the Executive Board. On the 1st of August 2023, Katja van Dorn took up her position as a member of the Executive Board and Labor Director of RWE AG. Her Executive Board portfolio also includes responsibility for IT, internal audit and security, and corporate transformation. She succeeds Nana Zeiger, who left the Executive Board at the end of July 2023 because of her personal life plans. Katja van Dorn initially worked as an auditor and tax consultant for KPMG before joining RWE in 1999. Most recently, as a member of the Executive Board of RWE Generation, she was responsible for finance and human resources.
I am delighted that the Supervisory Board has been able to appoint such an excellent and experienced manager to the Management Board, who is an outstanding addition to the team. After all, it is crucial for the success of the company to bring together the right people with the right skills around the Executive Board table, people who work as a team to set the right course for the future of RWE. I would like to take the opportunity to thank you, dear members of the Executive Board, also on behalf of the entire Supervisory Board. Thank you, dear Mr. Krebber, for your consistent and strategic leadership of our company. Thank you, Mr. Müller, for your strong leadership of the finance department. It is impressive how excellently and reliably you've been managing the company in all financial matters and positioning it successfully on the capital market. Thank you, Ms.
van Dorn, for taking over the new tasks on the Executive Board so smoothly. You have familiarized yourself extremely quickly and have already achieved important successes, for example, in the implementation of the HR strategy and the IT strategy. Dear Executive Board members, you've done an outstanding job as an extremely good and professional team. We, on the Supervisory Board, are looking forward to working with you in the future and wish you continued success. Ladies and gentlemen, I would now like to continue with item one on the agenda: presentation of the adopted annual financial statements of RWE AG and the approved consolidated financial statements as at 31 December 2023, as well as the combined review of operations for RWE AG and the group, and the report of the Supervisory Board for the 2023 financial year. The relevant documents are available on the internet at www.rwe.com/hv.
The annual financial statements, the consolidated financial statements, and the combined management report have been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, and issued with an unqualified audit opinion. The Executive Board and the auditor explained the financial statements in detail to both the Audit Committee and the entire Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board approved the annual financial statements and the consolidated financial statements after a detailed examination. The 2023 annual financial statements are thus adopted. The Supervisory Board also endorsed the Executive Board's proposal for the appropriation of net profit, which provides for the distribution of a dividend of EUR 1 per share. Let me now return to the work of the Supervisory Board in the past financial year. I would like to focus on the main aspects of the Supervisory Board's work.
Further information can be found in the written report of the Supervisory Board in the annual report on pages 9 to 15. Ladies and gentlemen, major global challenges continue to stamp their mark on 2023. Regrettably, our hopes for reinstatement of peace in Ukraine have not been fulfilled so far. To the contrary, conflicts around the globe intensified further following Hamas' barbaric attack on Israel. Our thoughts are with the victims of these atrocities. Conversely, a return to normalization was observed on the energy markets that had been plunged into turmoil after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Our company has assumed responsible action by making important contributions to preventing a gas and electricity crisis. Now, despite this, we did not lose sight of our medium and long-term goals. By building green energy assets, battery storage, hydrogen-ready gas power stations, we would like to grow strongly.
Hydrogen-ready gas power stations and electrolyzers, green energy assets, and battery storage will help RWE contribute to a sustainable, climate-friendly energy supply. RWE launched its growing green investment program as early as 2021. The company raised its ambitious targets yet again in 2023. RWE intends to nearly double its green generation capacity to over 65 gigawatts by 2030, with adjusted EBITDA exceeding EUR 9 billion. This is testament to the company's high ambitions, and RWE has already proven that it can deliver. The most recent evidence comes courtesy of the strong operating result in 2023, to which new wind and solar farms have made a significant contribution. In this connection, I would like to focus on the acquisition of Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses, which was completed in March 2023 and which turned RWE into one of the leading solar power producers in the United States.
My fellow Supervisory Board members and I advised company management extensively in making these fundamental decisions and endorsed the chosen path. Ladies and gentlemen, in addition to these key issues regarding the growth strategy, the Supervisory Board discussed further important topics in the past fiscal year. The main items on the agenda included developments on commodity markets, as well as geopolitical crises and their potential ramifications for European energy supply. Once again, we also concerned ourselves with current M&A endeavors. These included the acquisition of the U.K. project developer GBM Solar, the sale of the gas storage business in Czechia, the stakes taken by Abu Dhabi-based Masdar in two RWE offshore wind projects in the U.K. North Sea, and the acquisition of three U.K. offshore wind projects from Vattenfall.
Of course, a great deal of time and consideration went into the Supervisory Board elections that will be held today and the screening of suitable candidates, a task mainly performed by the nomination committee. The strategy and sustainability committee focused on the company's sustainability strategy. We also discussed the new ambitious climate targets, the company's social responsibility activities, and the sustainability agenda for 2024, one of the main elements of which consists of designing a biodiversity strategy. My fellow Supervisory Board members and I were hugely dedicated to providing support and advice in addressing the issues that stamped their mark on fiscal 2023 at RWE. The Executive Board kept us informed of related developments when they were in session. Supervisory Board member attendance at meetings in the past fiscal year was at 98.5%. For RWE 2023, the year of the company's 125th anniversary was another very successful fiscal year.
The company put in an outstanding performance and actually managed to accelerate on its course for growth despite the challenging framework conditions. Ladies and gentlemen, credit for this goes to uncountable motivated employees who ensure day in and day out that RWE stays its course and does not stop making progress when faced by headwind. I would like to express most sincere gratitude to them both personally and on behalf of the entire Supervisory Board for their exceptional dedication in the past year. I would now like to ask the Executive Board to explain its proposals and to provide an outlook for business development in the current financial year. For technical reasons, we recorded Dr. Krebber's speech before the meeting. The recorded speech will now be played back and included in the meeting. Liebe Aktionärinnen und.
Dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of my colleagues on the Executive Board, Katja van Dorn and Michael Müller, I would like to welcome you to the AGM of your RWE. A warm welcome. Unfortunately, the world did not become more peaceful last year. Wars and crises continue to dominate the global political situation. Reports and pictures of the suffering of people in war zones reach us daily in the news. We must not get used to it. We must not become numb to it. War and terror must never become the norm. Therefore, all efforts must continue to be made to halt the escalation in the Middle East. Everyone is now called upon to work towards de-escalation. The humanitarian disaster must be ended quickly, and with this, the suffering of the people in Gaza. Support for Ukraine must also continue.
The country is defending itself bravely, fighting for its own existence every day. One consequence of the Russian attack on Ukraine was the energy crisis in Europe. This situation improved significantly in 2023. The gas supply in Europe is stable again. Security of supply is guaranteed. Overall, the energy supply in Europe today is more broadly based and thus more crisis-proof. This has also helped us get through the last few winters. This success was hard-earned. Politics and business pulled together to work through the crisis and together overcame the enormous challenge. Your RWE played an important part in this because we provided a huge amount of support in 2022 and 2023, whether in the construction of input infrastructure for LNG, the procurement of liquefied natural gas, or the utilization of power plant units.
The latter remained in operation for longer due to the crisis in order to reduce the amount of gas used to generate electricity. In short, we were there. Wherever we were needed, we are proud to have made our contribution to overcoming the energy crisis. At the beginning of this year, we handed over the LNG infrastructure we built in Brunsbüttel to the state-owned Deutsche Energie Terminal GmbH. Just a few weeks ago, we were able to take the returned lignite-fired units off the grid again. They have now been shut down for good. Tackling the energy crisis was an additional task for our company. The real primary goal has always been growing green, has been pursued, and we also achieved a lot in this regard last year.
In 2023, we invested over EUR 11 billion in the expansion of our portfolio and thus increased our generation capacity by 6.3 gigawatts, a record amount. Around half of the investments were accounted for by our acquisition of Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses, which was completed last year. Thus, we've become one of the leading renewable energy companies in the U.S. In addition, we have forged ahead the construction of many new wind, solar, and battery projects in Germany, France, Greece, the U.K., Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, and the United States. Currently, your RWE has a green generation portfolio of around 35 gigawatts. A further 100 projects with a capacity of over 8 gigawatts are currently under construction. Our Sofia offshore wind farm is currently our largest construction project and one of the most exciting ones.
With 1.4 gigawatts, Sofia is one of the largest offshore wind projects in the world. The wind farm is being constructed on the so-called Dogger Bank far off the northeast coast of the U.K. From 2026, the electricity generated there will be transported over 220 km to the mainland via an undersea cable. With a view to innovation, sustainability, and technical challenges, Sofia is setting completely new standards. The wind farm will consist of 100 of the latest generation of wind turbines, each having an output of 14 megawatts. Forty-four of the 100 turbines will be equipped with recyclable rotor blades. Ladies and gentlemen, the implementation of our strategy is a task of all employees at RWE. Our colleagues are doing an excellent job in this respect. Growing green is progressing so well because everyone in Team RWE identifies with it and is working hard.
Our employees are our greatest asset, above all because they are committed to our cause with their heads and their hearts. Thanks ever so much on behalf of the entire Executive Board. Thanks to our Team RWE. Dear shareholders, 2023 was an extremely good year from a business point of view. The adjusted EBITDA amounted to EUR 8.4 billion. This is EUR 2 billion more than in the previous year. The net result was EUR 4.5 billion, an increase of around 40% compared to 2022. The strong growth in our generation capacity contributed to this. We invest in and operate more plants and thus increase our earnings. High earnings from energy trading in our flexible power plants were also a key driver of the good earnings development. Overall, we have thus significantly exceeded our economic targets. We've increased our earnings in all segments of our core business compared to 2022.
Only our coal and nuclear exit business saw segment earnings down on the previous year. Now let's take a closer look at the development of our earnings. In the offshore wind segment, we achieved an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 1.7 billion last year, an increase of 18% compared to the previous year. For the first time, our newly built German wind farm, Kaskasi, had all of its turbines online for a whole year. Our U.K. offshore wind farms, in particular, also delivered very good earnings thanks to favorable wind levels. In the onshore wind and solar segment, we achieved an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 1.2 billion. This was a good 50% more than in the previous year. The first-time consolidation of the business activities of Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses in the U.S. played a big part here.
The commissioning of new assets also had a positive impact: 14 new onshore wind farms, 15 ground-mounted solar plants, and 9 storage facilities. That is our really proud track record of commissioning in the past year. In the international hydrobiomass gas business, adjusted EBITDA at EUR 3.2 billion was once again significantly above the previous year, an increase of 35% compared to 2022. Our flexible power plants, which can produce electricity at any time, regardless of wind and sun, were utilized more than in 2022. The reason? Increasing shortages and fluctuations in the volume of electricity from renewables. In 2023, supply and trading also posted an extraordinarily strong performance once again. Adjusted EBITDA at EUR 1.6 billion exceeded the already high figure recorded in the previous year. By contrast, in the coal and nuclear segment, which is not part of our core business, we earned less than in the previous year.
We reached EUR 705 million compared to EUR 751 million the previous year. The decline in earnings is primarily due to the decommission of our last operational German nuclear power plant, Emsland, in April of last year. If we take a look at our CO2 emissions, we also see a pleasing trend. We have significantly reduced our CO2 emissions from 83 million metric tons in 2022 to around 60 million metric tons last year. That corresponds to a reduction of 27% in just one year. This success becomes even more evident when you compare our CO2 emissions with those of 2018, the year in which we completely refocused our business at RWE. Since then, we have halved our CO2 emissions. We are decarbonizing our portfolio rapidly and in line with a 1.5-degree target. We are well on the way to achieving our long-term goal, net zero by 2040.
Dear shareholders, 2023 can be summarized as follows: strong expansion of capacity, very good earnings, and a major reduction in carbon emissions. In other words, growing green. The name says it all. Now let's turn to the outlook for the current fiscal year. Times are more challenging due to weaker economic developments. Reduced demand for energy has led to a significant drop in power prices. This, of course, has an impact on RWE. We will not be able to match the outstanding result we posted in 2023. Nevertheless, we expect a good performance overall in 2024. We can confirm the guidance we provided in November, despite the significantly lower wholesale electricity prices since then. We therefore expect to close 2024 at the lower end of the earnings range, which we mentioned in November. We expect adjusted EBITDA within a range of EUR 5.2 billion-EUR 5.8 billion.
For adjusted net income, we envisage EUR 1.9 billion-EUR 2.4 billion. Ladies and gentlemen, in the coming years, further massive investment in our energy infrastructure will be necessary. This is the only way to guarantee a secure, affordable, and climate-neutral energy supply. RWE is perfectly positioned for this. It is one of the world's leading renewable energy companies with flexible and firm generation capacity and a global trading business. We have stepped up our pace of growth and investment for the coming years. By 2030, we intend to invest EUR 55 billion net in onshore and offshore wind, solar, batteries, flexible generation, and hydrogen projects around the world. We will thus expand our green portfolio to more than 65 gigawatts by the end of the decade, an increase of around 30 gigawatts.
In terms of regions, we will be focusing on the Western industrialized countries with low investment risk: European Union, U.S., and the United Kingdom, complemented by selected countries in the Asia-Pacific region: Japan, Korea, and Australia. Future investments will make the RWE portfolio even more robust. Diversification across technologies and regions minimizes risks in the portfolio. When it comes to the commercialization of our power production, we rely on stable earnings, either secured or by government-backed purchase prices via long-term agreements with key accounts. Our value-accretive investment program is made possible by three prerequisites. First, our sound balance sheet and high cash-generating operating portfolio give us significant financial headroom and flexibility. We have the flexibility and headroom.
Second, our teams have many years of experience and extensive knowledge along the entire value chain, from origination and development to construction and operations, right through to the successful commercialization of our projects. Third, our attractive, extensive project pipeline of future investment opportunities. We further strengthened this project pipeline in the past year by securing attractive sites and by constantly developing projects through successes in auctions in Germany, Europe, and Japan, and by acquiring three large wind power projects off the British coast from Vattenfall. Our total project pipeline now exceeds 100 gigawatts, an excellent basis for selecting the projects with the best risk-return profile for our investment program. We apply strict investment criteria when deciding which projects we actually realize. Across all regions and technologies, our average internal rate of return for a new project is 8%. With value-accretive investments, we will continuously increase our earnings.
We aim to earn around EUR 3 per share in 2027 and around EUR 4 per share in 2030. This means a compound annual growth rate of 8% per share from 2024 onwards. You, dear shareholders, we wish to include in our economic success. By continually raising our dividends, we're aiming to increase our dividend by 5%-10% every year until 2030. For 2023, we're proposing to pay a dividend of EUR 1 per share. We ask that you approve our recommendation. For the current fiscal year, we're aiming for EUR 1.10 per share. That is an increase of 10%. Growing green is a marathon and not a sprint. We've already reached important milestones. Our recent share price performance does not fully reflect this at present.
However, we are convinced our long-term share performance to date has been strong, and we are convinced that the strategy we're pursuing will enable us to build on this in the future. We're going to continue to work on this as Executive Board and together with the entire RWE team. Our shareholders, we would like to express our special gratitude with your investment and trust. You enable us to make your RWE even stronger and more valuable in the long term. I would like to thank our Supervisory Board, also on behalf of my colleagues on the Executive Board, for their constructive and trustful cooperation. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to conclude with a topic that is very close to my heart. 2024 is a year of very, very important political decisions. In June, the European Parliament will be re-elected.
In autumn, the general election in the U.K. will take place. At the end of the year, the decisions will be made in the United States regarding the presidency and the composition of the Congress. As citizens of these regions, we are therefore in particular demand this year. It is our chance to take a stand and to stand up for our values: democracy, freedom, cosmopolitan approach, diversity, tolerance, and respect. Fundamental values that are crucial for our coexistence, for us, and for future generations. I will, of course, be casting my vote in order to strengthen these values and hope that everyone will do the very same and thus ensure one thing above all: political stability. This political stability will also be decisive in ensuring that we can consistently pursue the challenging path towards an affordable, secure, and climate-neutral energy supply.
We at RWE are playing our part with all of our energy. Herr Krebber, vielen Dank für Ihre— Dr. Krebber, thank you very much for your comments and your urgent appeal. I would also like to point out that the Executive Board has described and explained the disclosures in accordance with sections 315A and 289A of the German Commercial Code in a separate written report, which is available on our website. The explanations can also be found in the management report on pages 72 and following of the annual report. Ladies and gentlemen, in the meantime, I have received the current attendance figure, which I would like to announce to you. At today's AGM, proxies and shareholders joining electronically are representing 398,879,252 shares with an equal number of votes. This corresponds to an attendance of 53.62% of the registered share capital.
In addition, we have received postal votes for another 66,270,048 shares. In total, 465,149,300 votes are represented at this AGM, which corresponds to 62.53% of the registered share capital.