Iberdrola has once again been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), making it the only European utility to have been included in the selection throughout its 20 editions, according to data published by S&P Dow Jones Indices and RobecoSAM, who are responsible for producing them.
Furthermore, Iberdrola has been included in both the global index, DJSI World and the European one, DJSI Europe. This highlights the group’s firm commitment to the highest environmental, social and corporate governance standards, since from an initial universe of some 10,000 companies only 10% of the top scoring companies in terms of sustainability are finally selected.
The trends in these indices also illustrates how investor interest in the most sustainable companies has been increasing over the past few years: since 2001, the DJSI World has gained 95.71% and the DJSI Europe has increased in value by 134.14%. Iberdrola’s stock for its part has increased in value by 146.05%[1].
This evolution
reflects the success of a model based on sustainable development, which
has led to Iberdrola’s becoming a world leader in renewable generation,
with more than 30,300 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity at the end of
the first half of the year and a benchmark in sustainability and the
fight against climate change.
Iberdrola, committed to the SDGs
Iberdrola has fully incorporated the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) into its strategy. The goals are part of the 2030 Agenda and were approved by the UN 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 euros in 2018, (Goal 9), promotes respect for the life of terrestrial ecosystems (Goal 15) and works to establish partnerships to achieve the goals (Goal 17).
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 8,000 million euros until 2022, 90% of which is allocated to renewables and networks.
As a leader in sustainable financing, in March 2019 Iberdrola successfully concluded the signing of a new multi-currency syndicated loan amounting to €1.5bn and linked to sustainability criteria, within the group’s current financing strategy. Specifically, this is the first financing transaction linked to point 7 of the UN Agenda 2030 SDGs.
This loan has very advantageous conditions linked to compliance with two sustainability indicators validated by the independent agency Vigeo Eiris.
The first is of a social nature and is related to SDG 7.1, which seeks to guarantee universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services. Hence, the loan becomes the company’s first to be linked to criteria of universal access to energy. This operation is therefore in line with the ‘Electricity for All’ programme through which Iberdrola has set itself the goal of bringing electricity to 16 million people who currently lack it in emerging or developing countries by 2030.
The second indicator is of an environmental
nature and is linked to the installation of new renewable power, in line
with point 7.2 of the United Nations Agenda 2030 Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs): to increase substantially the share of
renewable energy in the global energy mix.
