Within the European Green Deal, the main measures of community interest are broken down so that Europe achieves the objectives set by its ecological transition. These will culminate in 2050, when the Union economy achieves carbon neutrality.
With the aim of analyzing the opportunities arising from applying the EU’s decarbonisation policies, EL MUNDO has organized, together with ENDESA, the meeting on Climate and the European Green Pact, in which Banco Santander, Ferrovial, Amadeus and Schneider have also participated Electric.
On behalf of Endesa, María Malaxechevarría, general director of sustainability for the electricity company, wanted to highlight “the two strategic axes” that the company has set in order to achieve the objectives of economic neutrality. The first of them is related to the “decarbonisation of its energy mix”.
In this sense, Malaxechevarría announced that Endesa has advanced its decarbonization plans “to the year 2040”, underlining that “they want to be a 100% renewable company”. In line with this first goal, the director of Endesa assures that her intention is “to help her clients so that together they can all achieve that economic neutrality”.
Federico Gómez, Director of Sustainable Finance at Banco Santander, has highlighted the role that financial institutions will have throughout this ecological transition, offering support to companies in their sustainable projects and progressively reducing financing for those that are more polluting. “In the year 2050 our portfolio will not emit carbon, that is, those activities that do emit it will be offset by others that capture greenhouse gases,” he stressed.
To this end, Santander has proposed to reduce coverage to those activities that are most harmful to the environment. “We are going to have to stop financing those activities that are more polluting, as of 2030 we will not grant financing to those energy companies whose income comes from carbon-related activities in figures greater than 10%,” he added.
In line with the two previous interventions, Ana Peña, Manager of Sustainability, Climate Change and Environment at Ferrovial, broke down the main lines of action of her company to meet the objectives set by the European Union, highlighting the “powerful strategy” that the firm intends to implement in line with the directives of the Paris agreement. “We are already experiencing an increase of 1.1 degrees in temperature, at Ferrovial we are working to see what technology we should promote within our client portfolio in order to be able to provide the necessary solutions to this problem,” she explained.
On behalf of Amadeus, Lucas Bobes, director of sustainability, highlighted the two ways in which the technology firm intends to reduce its footprint on the environment. First, he explained the importance of “taking charge of your own impact”, highlighting Amadeus’ effort to contain its electricity consumption when executing data processing through “energy efficiency measures”.
In addition, the director of the company wanted to emphasize the importance of making its customers aware of the carbon footprint. “This measure is the most important for us, we are in charge of transmitting enough information so that they know which is the most sustainable travel option,” he said.
For Joaquim Daura, director of energy and sustainability services at Schneider Electric, the reason why energy must be decarbonized is due to the amount of emissions it generates. “80% of emissions have an energy origin, if we want to decarbonize the planet we must decarbonize energy,” he explained.
Among the measures proposed by the director of Schneider Electric, the following stand out: “promote energy efficiency, the use of renewables and self-consumption, define an energy purchase strategy and electrification”. In his opinion, if they are not implemented as a whole, “we will not be able to decarbonize ourselves”.
Before the colloquium ended, Clara de la Torre, Deputy Director General of the European Commission’s Climate Action DG, stressed the importance of complying with the guidelines established in the Paris Agreement, since, otherwise, the consequences could be “irreversible”. “The more time elapses, the margin of action to take measures is going to be narrower, studies already tell us about the irreversible effects that exceeding the 1.5 degrees that have been established can have. The green pact will make us the first continent climate neutral, we are at the forefront of climate diplomacy,” he said.
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