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San Agustín del Guadalix (Madrid). Iberdrola Chairman, Ignacio Galán, took part in a seminar entitled The Unavoidable Transformation, organised by the company, ISGlobal, itdUPM and the Spanish Network for Sustainable Development (REDS) on the Iberdrola Campus in San Agustín del Guadalix, Madrid.

Ignacio Galán, plus the acting minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera; the Special Advisor of the Secretary of the United Nations for SDG, Jeffrey Sachs; and CEO of EIT Climate-KIC, Kirsten Dunlop, addressed an audience of around 300 people on the best strategy for fulfilling the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

During his speech, Ignacio Galán stated that “SDGs should not be a problem but rather an opportunity. Companies spearheading change, like Iberdrola, are doing better.” The Chairman called upon all sectors, companies and organisations to “work in the interest of the world, nature and people, upholding talent and doing things well”. “It’s good for shareholders and for society at large”, he added.

In this regard, Ignacio Galán emphasised that investors are supporting companies committed to sustainability, declaring that “once the time for persuasion has passed, we have begun the phase of measuring what we are doing.”

Jeffrey Sachs talked about Spain's role in achieving the UN 2030 Agenda goals. “Spain’s leadership in sustainable development is exciting and convincing,” he said. “The Government has put SDGs at the heart of the national agenda and has received overwhelming public support in recent elections. Many Spanish companies are leading in new clean, green technologies. Spain's role to deliver SDGs will be of great global importance in the years to come,” he added.

Acting minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, was responsible for closing the first block of the seminar and argued that “we are destined to cooperate with our natural partners to identity those collectives, institutions and vulnerable groups which, necessarily, must be part of the plan for any solution.”

This panel debate was the first session of an event in which around 20 globally recognised experts on sustainability and innovation took part. The objective was to encourage compliance with the UN 2030 Agenda, urging scientists, policymakers, business leaders and representatives from civil society to speed up action, intergenerational responsibility and collective commitment.

Also participating in this seminar were the Ibero-American Secretary General, Rebeca Gynspan, the High Commissioner of the Spanish Government for the 2030 Agenda, Cristina Gallach, the professor at McGill University in Montreal and Senior Fellow of The Young Foundation and the Agirre Lehendakaria Center (UPV-EHU), Gorka Espiau, and the President of Fundación COTEC, Cristina Garmendia, among others.

Iberdrola, committed to SDGs

Iberdrola has fully incorporated to its strategy the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the UN 2030 Agenda, approved in September 2015.

In line with its activities, Iberdrola focuses its efforts on the provision of affordable and clean energy (Goal 7) and climate action (Goal 13). In addition, the group contributes directly to ensuring clean water and sanitation (Goal 6), it has increased its investment in R&D&I activities to €270 million in 2018, (Goal 9) while promoting respect for the life of terrestrial ecosystems (Goal 15) and working to establish partnerships to achieve the goals (Goal 17). The company also makes an indirect contribution to all the other Sustainable Development Goals.

In line with this commitment, Iberdrola is continuing to strengthen its leadership in clean energies and the fight against climate change, with annual investments of €8 billion up to 2022, 90% of which is allocated to renewables and networks. In Spain alone, the company expects to triple its current solar and wind generation capacity by 2030, create 20,000 new jobs until 2022 and continue to reduce contaminating emissions even further, despite Iberdrola’s being 75% lower than the average of Europe and Spain's large electricity companies.

The company is also committed to electricity for all in emerging and developing countries. Through the Electricity for All programme, the company reached more than five million beneficiaries in Latin America and Africa since it was launched in 2015 and has set the objective of triple the number of beneficiaries by 2030.