Endesa and the 5th anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement

The Paris Climate Agreement is five years old. It has been five years since measures were established worldwide to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to implement the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The ZERO CO2 emissions goal agreed upon for 2050 on 12 December 2015 set out to reinforce the global response to the threat of climate change and was an international milestone.  It was a historic global agreement. A total of 190 plans to combat climate change were presented, covering around 99% of emissions from all the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The main objective of the Paris Agreement is to restrict the increase in global temperatures to 2ºC, with the intention to keep it within 1.5ºC compared to the pre-industrial period. But the Agreement does not stop there. It also sets out a path for achieving it, and introduces the requirement to achieve carbon neutrality, which developed economies are required to achieve by 2050.

For Endesa, it was an unprecedented climate change challenge, which meant establishing ambitious objectives in the area of climate change (Strategic Plan 2017-2019), committing to achieving zero CO2 emissions from electricity generation by 2050 and charting a path with intermediate targets to reduce absolute emissions, taking 2005 as the reference year.

Thanks to the great effort and commitment of Endesa, in just four years since the entry into force of the Paris Agreement, Endesa has gone almost halfway towards the goal set for 2050:  Endesa has reduced its emissions by 48% since 2015 (almost 70% since 2005, when the Kyoto Protocol entered into force).

The recently presented update to the Strategic Plan for the 2021-2023 period confirms the company’s commitment to the fight against climate change: 

• Reduce specific CO2 emissions by 80% in 2030 compared to 2017, which keeps us aligned with a scenario of a maximum increase in global average temperature of 1.5ºC compared to the pre-industrial period.
• Increase the renewable generation capability from the current 7.7 GW (estimate at the end of 2020) to 18 GW in 2030, with an associated investment of around €10 billion.

• This will allow us to reach generation which is 80% CO2 emission-free by 2030.

Endesa is thus playing a key role in the fight against climate change, demonstrating its leadership and significantly contributing to the fulfilment of national and international commitments that address the decarbonisation of the planet. This year, CDP has included Endesa in List A, which recognises leading companies in climate action and transparency.