• The  sustainability plan 2024-2026 approved in February is a short-, medium- and long-term roadmap with which the company makes public its objectives and their performance around five axes: Zero emissions ambition, commitment to people, nature, good governance and human rights, and growth accelerators.
• The new initiatives include a climate adaptation plan to increase business resilience; the development of a specific methodology for the assessment and quantification of impacts on biodiversity; and the design of a human rights action plan.
• The degree of compliance with the measures in the 2023-2025 Plan stands at 96%.

The Board of Directors of Endesa has approved the 2024-2026 Strategic Plan for Sustainability, prepared with the participation of all areas of the company and it will be monitored and assessed by the Sustainability and Corporate Governance Committee, consisting of four directors of the company. With this Plan, Endesa is updating its commitment to financial and environmental sustainability as a way to becoming a leader in a fair and inclusive energy transition, minimising the environmental footprint and maximising the positive social impact, creating value in the territories where it operates, contributing competitiveness to families and companies, and providing returns on investment.

"At a time of uncertainty around ESG parameters, the company remains firm in its commitment to sustainability and its roadmap to become a zero-emission company by 2040," says María Malaxechevarría, Chief Sustainability Officer. "This shift towards a decarbonised economy represents an opportunity for economic and social progress and for the improvement of the planet that requires an innovative strategy that involves the 91 specific measures included in the current Sustainability Plan", added the speaker, who is also the Manager of the Endesa Foundation.

The document is updated annually and the company's stakeholders were involved in its preparation by means of more than 1,100 online surveys to identify potential impacts, risks and opportunities. 

As Ms Malaxechevarría emphasised, the Sustainability Plan "includes clear objectives that are guidelines for the entire long-term strategy and it also includes medium and short-term objectives that specify and indicate the path towards meeting the major challenges. We not only make our goals public, we also publish the progress we make towards their achievement as a clear sign of business transparency." Thus, the degree of compliance with the measures included in Plan 2023-2025 has reached 96%.

Developments

The key feature of the 2024-2026 Strategic Sustainability Plan is the creation of a climate adaptation plan to increase business resilience. According to Ms Malaxechevarría, "at Endesa we are working on mitigating climate change and also on adapting our activity to reduce risks and, in addition, maximise opportunities. This involves incorporating climate indicators as an additional key factor in the analysis of new renewable projects, guaranteeing resilience right from the design phase."

To achieve this end, climate scenarios are analysed to assess the foreseeable changes in physical phenomena at a European, Spanish and local level. Potential damage to assets is quantified and economic impacts are assessed in order to define measures to adapt to climate change whilst preserving profitability, fostering resilient business models and taking advantage of potential opportunities.

The practical application of this plan will influence a variety of factors such as the location of renewable generation plants where there are greater solar or wind resources, or the preparation of the distribution network to respond to adverse phenomena, increasingly frequent and intense due to climate change. And also on more operational and day-to-day issues, such as looking for new materials for the clothes worn by people who work exposed to the sun and increasing temperatures, or the redesign of work shifts.

The Plan also consolidates the objective of no loss of biodiversity and no net deforestation that was included in the previous plan, reinforcing it with two new features: The commitment that 100 per cent of the new projects that require an environmental impact study for the 2024-2026 period have an assessment of the impact on biodiversity as well as the development of a common methodology for the quantification of these impacts.

The document includes the implementation of a new 16-point action plan on human rights, associated with the audit (due diligence) undertaken by Endesa in 2023, where it analysed its performance in this field. This audit certified the company's compliance with human rights but identified measures for improvement that were included in the above-mentioned action plan and which will be implemented during the period of validity for the new Sustainability Plan. This is the company's third human rights audit, a review that is conducted every three years.

Context and key measures

The fight against climate change continues to be the main strategic focus due to the worsening of its effects with increasingly severe droughts, biodiversity losses and degradation of natural systems that could compromise up to 50% of global GDP, according to data from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Therefore, the decarbonisation path is maintained in line with meeting the objective set by the Paris Agreements of 2015 to limit the growth of the global average temperature to 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels.

To reach these goals the company presented a Strategic Plan in November with investments of €8,900 million for the 2024-2026 period. Of this amount, 90% is aligned with SDG 13 on Climate Action and 80% with the European Union's green taxonomy.

The plan includes the total discontinuation of coal-fired generation by 2027 (Endesa's last coal-fired power plant in the Iberian Peninsula, As Pontes, was closed in 2023); the generation and sale of 100% renewable energy by 2040; the complete discontinuation of retail gas sales by that date; a commitment to the electrification of customers' energy consumption, as well as the total decarbonisation of the supply chain. To achieve this, it will be necessary to go from a net production from renewable sources of 14.2 TWh in 2023 to 23.6 TWh in 2026.

Nature

The plan includes 40 measures in this field, including those already mentioned on biodiversity. Endesa is sensitive to social concern with regard to the management of increasingly scarce water resources, so there is a commitment to achieving a 20% reduction in water abstraction in the electricity generation process by 2026 compared to 2023. With regard to pollution, measures are being established to improve air quality by reducing the emission of pollutants during the generation process and in the consumption of energy in Endesa's buildings. The aim is to continue along the path already established many years ago by the company that has enabled it to reduce its emissions by 56% in the period from 2017 to 2023, a percentage that increases to 80% if the Kyoto Protocol in force since 2005 is taken as a reference.

This concern for the management and reduction of environmental impact is also reflected in the objectives of reducing waste, with the definition of new methods of reuse, recycling and recovery. Specifically, the aim is to recover 91% of the waste produced in the case of non-hazardous waste, and 67% in the case of hazardous waste.

As well as this, Endesa has a solid track record of policies in the field of respect for the natural environment that have enabled it to reduce its environmental footprint, that is the total for all its footprints, including carbon, water, atmospheric, waste, etc., by 52% since 2019. 

Commitment to people

The company pays a lot of attention to people, transferring its commitment to sustainability to its employees, its supply chain, the communities where it operates and its customers. In this regard, diversity and training stand out as key elements. In the communities where it operates, the company expects to reach 310,000 annual beneficiaries in projects involving access to energy, social-economic development and high quality education. It also highlights the growing participation of the company's employees in corporate volunteering tasks through the activities proposed by the Endesa Foundation. It is expected to have 1,500 volunteers per year during the 2024-2026 period.

In terms of diversity and inclusion, Endesa continues its progressive path of increasing the presence of women in the workforce, in positions of responsibility and in management positions with revenue-generating functions, as well as the promotion of gender diversity in selection processes. Finally, awareness-raising initiatives are maintained through Endesa's recently created LGTBIQ+ community.

Good governance and human rights

The implementation and promotion of good governance best practices and ensuring respect for human rights and internal processes are essential to ensure sustainable development. To achieve this, the plan includes 8 activities and objectives, ranging from the analysis of complaints through the ethics channel to the presence of at least 40% of women on the Board of Directors, as well as to the already explained action plan resulting from a human rights due diligence process and which needs to be executed in its entirety during the 2024-2026 period.

Growth Accelerators

The circular economy, cybersecurity, digitalisation and sustainable finance are considered key elements to guarantee the sustainable growth of the company, which has established ambitious objectives in these accelerators.

This involves a planned €800 million of investment in quality, resilience and digitalisation in distribution network assets, as well as a high level of financing linked to sustainability criteria with a view to reaching 80% of gross debt by the end of the plan.

About Endesa

Endesa is a leading electricity company in Spain and the second largest in Portugal. It is also the second largest gas operator in the Spanish market. It undertakes end-to-end business including the generation, distribution and retailing of electricity. It also offers electric mobility services, where it is one of the main operators of charging stations in Spain, and, through the Endesa X brand, value-added services aimed at the electrification of energy uses in homes, companies, industries and Public Administrations. Endesa is firmly committed to the United Nations SDGs and strongly supports the development of renewable energies through Enel Green Power España, the digitalisation of grids through e-distribución and Corporate Social Responsibility. The Endesa Foundation is also active in CSR. Our team totals around 9,000 employees. Endesa is part of Enel, Europe's largest electricity group.