Company Profile: Iberdrola
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Iberdrola is a world leading power utility with net revenues of over $40 billion in 2019, focusing on renewable energy, smart grids, storage, and electric mobility.
Headquartered in Spain, the company operates in more than 30 countries, with a workforce of more than 35,000 people and supplies power for 100 million people.
Commitments
- Iberdrola has an approved science-based target to reduce absolute scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 20% by 2030 from a 2017 base year.
- Iberdrola is committed to being carbon neutral by 2050.
- Iberdrola is committed to fully electrifying its vehicle fleet of over 3,000 vehicles in Spain and the UK with the Climate Group’s EV100.
- Iberdrola reached 39% of total electricity production with renewable energy in 2019.
- Iberdrola is also committed to implement the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.
- Iberdrola has committed to bringing electricity to 16 million people by 2030 who today lack access to this energy source.
Emission reduction: decoupling growth from emissions
- Direct (Scope 1) CO2 emissions from production facilities fell 1.6% to 13.4 Mt in 2019, from 13.6 Mt in 2018.
- Indirect (Scope 2) CO2 emissions fell 18% to 2.08 Mt in 2019, from 2.54 Mt in 2018.
- Value chain (Scope 3) CO2 emissions: 54.2 Mt in 2019, and 51.1 Mt in 2018.
- From its renewable energy installations, Iberdrola estimates annual CO2e savings of more than 15 million metric tonnes CO2e.
- In 2019, Iberdrola achieved a 50% decrease of specific Sulfur Dioxide emissions compared to 2018 figures.
- More than two thirds of Iberdrola’s installed capacity is emission free (68%).
Renewable electricity
- At year-end 2019, Iberdrola had 52,082 MW of installed capacity, 62% of the total corresponding to renewable technologies.
- Between 2018 and 2022, Iberdrola is committed to investing €13,300 million in renewables, expecting to install 9.9 GW in this period. This is spread across: Spain and Portugal 31%; USA 27%; United Kingdom 19%; Mexico 6% and Brazil 5%.
- Iberdrola has the objective of investing 10 billion euros in 2020. The company ensures its expansion in the coming years with a portfolio of renewable projects amounting to 58,000 megawatts.
- Iberdrola’s chairman stated “we are moving forward firmly in our commitment to invest 10 billion euros by 2020, demonstrating that the path to a rapid and sustained recovery is the green economy”.
- ScottishPower has become the first integrated energy company in the UK to generate 100% renewable energy.
- Iberdrola has closed fifteen coal and fuel oil plants since 2001 all over the world, totalling approximately 7,500 MW.
- Their decarbonization strategy of “always working with local authorities to guarantee jobs and minimize impact on supply chain and local economy” has led to renewable energy sources with a capacity of more than 32,000 MW being installed, adding more than 2.7 GW during the 2018-2019 period.
Electric vehicles
- Iberdrola has a Sustainable Mobility Plan to reduce emissions, promote energy efficiency, improve the quality of life of the people living in the areas where the group operates and raise awareness among employees.
- Iberdrola Smart Mobility Plan envisages the deployment of 150,000 electric vehicle charging points in Spain by 2025. The company has already begun the deployment of the largest network of fast charging stations for electric vehicles on Spain’s main motorways and corridors. The electricity supplied at these recharging points will be 100% green.
- It was the first Spanish company to launch a shared electric car service among its employees to handle commercial activities in Madrid, Bilbao, Seville, Valencia, Valladolid and Barcelona.
- Iberdrola has become the first Spanish company to join the Climate Group EV100 initiative, a program that unites companies around the world committed to speeding up the transition to electric vehicles, and making electric transport the new standard by 2030. In this context, Iberdrola plans to electrify its entire vehicle fleet in Spain and the United Kingdom and provide charging facilities for its staff by 2030.
- The company continues to launch since 2016 a financial support program for employees to help them purchase 100% EVs and grants for installing charging stations.
- Iberdrola also has joined the International Transport Forum’s Corporate Partnership Board to work of topics related to sustainability, the decarbonisation of transport, innovation and workforce diversity.
Committed to the Green Recovery
- Iberdrola is committed to accelerating its investments in renewable energies, digitalisation and electrical mobility to boost economic and employment recovery.
- The company will invest €10 billion in 2020, helping to revive the economy and employment. It maintains its forecast of hiring 5,000 new professionals throughout 2020 and, in the last year, more than 1,700 young people under 30 years of age joined its workforce.
- Iberdrola has also accelerated its purchases from suppliers, which reached €3.8 billion in the first quarter of the year. Iberdrola has more than 22,000 suppliers, generating 400,000 jobs worldwide, and has agreements in place until 2023 worth more than €20 billion.
- Beyond its own activities, Iberdrola is leading at corporate level the advocacy activities in support to a green approach in the recovery plans all across the globe.
Declarations, Alliances and Campaigns supported:
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- Uniting Business and Government to Recover Better. This UN Global Compact statement backed by over 170 CEOs is the largest initiate put in motion by the United Nations and brings businesses and governments together to streamline recovery, calling on governments to focus on a faster and fairer transition geared towards green economy by grounding recovery policies and plans in the latest climate science.
- Green Recovery Call. A European alliance, launched by Pascal Canfin -Chair of the Environment Committee at the European Parliament-, that gathers a wide-ranging group of ministers, MEPs, CEOs, NGOs & Trade Unions who support the European Green Deal as a growth roadmap for the EU.
- Build back better (COVID-19 Policy Response). A global business campaign that urge policy makers to align economic recovery with climate action, leading by their example as companies that have set themselves up for long-term success in a zero-carbon future.
Unique innovations
- Iberdrola is the world’s largest corporate issuer of green bonds; from 2014 to date it issued more than €11 billion in green bonds and has recently closed the world’s largest operation of credit lines reconfigured subject to sustainability criteria, in the amount of €5,300 million.
- In March 2019, Iberdrola signed a new sustainable credit deal for €1.5 billion linked to the UN Agenda 2030 SDGs.
- The East Anglia One offshore wind farm in the UK required the largest alternating current (AC) offshore substation ever built.
Policy advocacy
- In the context of the global and regional climate action summits and policy debates, Iberdrola has been supporting the main milestones of the global climate agenda, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Marrakech Partnership activities, in order to achieve greater urgency and ambition in the fight against climate change. Iberdrola has been an official sponsor of their annual conference in 2017, 2018, and 2019 (COP23, COP24 and COP 25).
- Beyond UNFCCC process, Iberdrola is fully engaged with an ambitious approach in the global climate agenda through intense participation in the main global alliances and organizations: United Nations Global Compact (LEAD company and patronage of climate action platform “Business Ambition for Climate and Health”); World Business Council for Sustainable Development; Corporate Leaders Group; Powering Past Coal Alliance; Energy Transition Commission, European Climate Foundation and Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition.
- Iberdrola is active member of CO2 Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition – CPLC (World Bank) and participated in the Carbon Pricing Corridors project (promoted by CDP, We Mean Business and the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition) that, provided market insights into the future impact of carbon pricing and explored the carbon-related price signals that would decarbonize electricity generation and heavy industry through the short to medium-term (2020, 2025, 2030 and 2035) and help deliver a sub-2°C world as defined by the Paris Agreement.
- Iberdrola showed leadership during the Climate Summit of the Secretary General of the United Nations in New York in September 2019, engaging at the highest level with the main action streams (mitigation, energy transition, just transition…) and joining some of the most relevant pledges such as the Business Ambition 1,5 oC declaration, aimed at aligning business activities with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and the Just Transition and Decent Jobs Pledge, encouraging companies to following ILO core labour standards with respect to their own employees, and use contractors who also comply with these standards.
- Iberdrola has been one of the leading companies that publicly endorses the European Green Deal and the EU climate neutrality target by 2050, co-organizing a high level event at COP 25 in Madrid with European Commission and CLG Europe, with the participation of Vice-president Timmermans and Ignacio S. Galán, Chairman and CEO of Iberdrola.
- Within the roadmap towards climate neutrality, Iberdrola has advocated for an ambitious approach to fully decarbonize the energy sector by 2050 as a source of opportunities. In collaboration with Afry consulting group, it has been developed a thorough assessment of this transition towards a decarbonized energy sector at EU level. This report was launched at a high level webinar with the participation of the European Commission, co-organized with Euractiv in June 2020. It showed that the decarbonisation of the European energy system in 2050 is possible, although ambitious, through a comprehensive electrification of transport and heat, based on very high penetration of renewable generation.
- On the way to COP26, to be held in Glasgow from 1 to 12 November 2021, Iberdrola is working intensively to keep climate action momentum and urgency, by example and through various campaigns and activities, to support an ambitious approach when renewing political commitments — the so-called nationally determined contributions, or NDCs — which countries adhered to under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Leadership
- Thanks to the significant degree of alignment between Iberdrola’s strategy and the objectives of the Paris Agreement, Iberdrola was one of the six companies selected by the United Nations to participate in the Talanoa Dialogue sessions in 2018, one of the first companies to set a climate target aligned with the net zero emission economy by 2050 and one of the few companies to join the plenary of the Climate Action Summit in September 2019, organized by the United Nations Secretary General.
- For the fifth consecutive year, Iberdrola organized a cycling expedition dubbed “Moving for Climate NOW”. A group of COP25 participants cycled over 500 kilometers from Salamanca to Madrid before arriving at the headquarters of the COP25 in Madrid, where they delivered its Manifesto for Climate Action to the Executive Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Chilean Presidency and other authorities. The Manifesto delivered points to the need to set more ambitious climate targets if we are to achieve zero net emissions by 2050. This initiative will also be organized for COP26.
- Iberdrola, only European electric utility included in the 20 editions of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
- Iberdrola were selected in 2020 among the 100 most sustainable companies in the world as part of the Global 100.
- Iberdrola and Fertiberia have signed an agreement to construct the largest green hydrogen plant for industrial use in Europe, which will see investment of 150 million euros. To be operational in 2021, the project will consist of a 100 MW photovoltaic solar plant, a lithium-ion battery system with a storage capacity of 20 MWh and one of the largest electrolytic hydrogen production systems in the world (20 MW).
- Iberdrola has developed an intense activity in the field of clean energy power supply. Especially remarkable is their agreement with companies as Google, Apple, Amazon, Orange or Vodafone.
Sources
Iberdrola Integrated Report 2020
Shareholders Investors Annual Reports