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Iberdrola and the Higher Centre for National Defence Studies (Centro Superior de Estudios de la Defensa Nacional (CESEDEN)) the Spanish Armed Forces’ main joint military teaching centre discussed the role of the Armed Forces and business in compliance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals from the 2030 Agenda.

The seminar, which started at 9:00 a.m., featured talks by Brigadier General Francisco José Dacoba Cerviño, director of the Higher Centre for National Defence Studies and co-manager of the seminar; Manuel Aragón Reyes, Constitutional Law professor at the Universidad Autónomo de Madrid and co-manager of the seminar, and Santiago Martínez Garrido, head of legal services at Iberdrola.

During the event, a dozen SDG experts discussed the need to drive the 17 objectives defined by the United Nations in 2015 which are crucial to the future of humankind and which include elimination of poverty and combating climate change, education, equality for women, defence of the environment and city design.

During the first part of the Seminar, entitled Significance and function of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), María del Mar Hidalgo García, an analyst at the Spanish Institute of Strategic Studies (Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos (IEEE)) talked about The notion of sustainable development. She was followed by Blanca Palacián de Inza, also an IEEE analyst, who stressed the need for global action to combat poverty and inequality.

Next, Carlos Sallé Alonso, director of Energy Policy and Climate Change at Iberdrola, focused on The Collaboration between States and Civil Society to achieve the SDG. Lastly, Manuel Aragón Reyes underlined the fact that the SDG are a material guarantee of human rights.

The essential role of the armed forces and the business community

The second part of the seminar, which was entitled The involvement of the Armed Forces and companies in the SDG, was delivered by IEEE associate analyst Colonel Juan Alberto Mora Tebas, who based his presentation on The SDG as a relevant factor in defence and security in the Sahel. After this, Lieutenant Colonel Jesús Díez Alcalde of the Army and also an IEEE analyst, explained the contribution of the Armed Forces to the Goal 16: peace and justice.

He was followed by two Iberdrola representatives: Agustín Delgado Martín, Director of Innovation, Sustainability and Quality, and Mónica Oviedo Céspedes, Head of Sustainability. The former tackled The contribution of companies to the SDG, while the latter talked about the plan to integrate these in the company.

It should be mentioned, in this regard, that Iberdrola is deeply committed to compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals. The company focuses its efforts on the supply of affordable and clean energy (Goal 7) and on climate action (Goal 13) while also contributing directly to ensuring clean water and sanitation (Goal 6), increasing its investment in R&D&I activities (Goal 9), promoting respect for the life of terrestrial ecosystems (Goal 15) and working to establish partnerships to achieve the goals (Goal 17).

The Armed Forces and Civil Society Seminar: The SDG: involvement of the Armed Forces and companies was closed at around 2 pm by Lieutenant-General Francisco de Paula Bisbal Pons of the Marine Corps and Head of the CESEDEN, and the secretary of Iberdrola’s Board of Directors, Julián Martínez-Simancas.