Sustainability Commitments
Our commitments
A greener, fairer and safer world starts with solid commitments from those who have the ambition to lead the energy transition. Sustainability is increasingly important throughout our value chain – whether in electric mobility, in production, in the social area or in transparency in reporting. Find out more about our commitments here.
Transversal InitiativesDecarbonisationElectrical MobilityGovernance and SocietyOther initiatives
Transversal InitiativesDecarbonisationElectrical MobilityGovernance and SocietyOther initiatives
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Transversal Initiatives
 
The voice of the Energy Transition
Category: Commitment
Year: 2023
The Voice of the Energy Transition", is the motto of the manifesto in which some energy sector leaders pledge to defend a more comprehensive and enriched concept of "transition" that is rooted in international consensus and the universal socio-economic needs of everyone on the planet. This manifesto situates the energy transition within broader global development scenarios and shares a vision that is practical, equitable and fundamentally coherent with the Sustainable Development Goals. EDP was one of the companies that signed this commitment, represented by Sandhya Ganapathy, CEO of EDPR NA, reinforcing its commitment to a swift and fair energy transition.
 
Open Letter to G20 and World Leaders
Category: Positioning
Year: 2022
EDP, through Global Wind Energy Council, was one of the companies to subscribe this letter to address the current energy security and climate change crises impacting communities around the world. It is asked to G20 policymakers to work with our industry to shift gears on the clean energy transition.
 
WBCSD Business Manifesto for Climate Recovery
Category: Commitment
Year: 2021
The Manifesto sets out of twelve action priorities framed around reducing, removing and reporting emissions and highlights the public-private collaboration required to drive climate action.
 
UN Global Compact: CEO Statement for Renewed Global Corporation
Category: Positioning
Year: 2020
In this letter supporting inclusive multilateralism, presented at the United Nations General Assembly, EDP, together with other entities, committed to providing ethical leadership, to combating inequalities and systematic injustices by more inclusive, participatory and representative decision making at the different levels of the business, and to collaborating with the UN, Government and society to strengthen access to justice, ensuring transparency in reporting, providing legal security, promoting equality and respecting human rights.
 
UN Global Compact Principles
Category: Commitment
Year: 2004
EDP signed up to the UN Global Compact principles in 2004, and since then has annually reported its performance against the 10 Principles involved in this initiative, including:
  • Renewable and accessible energies
  • Gender equality
  • Climate action
  • Protecting life on land
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Decarbonisation
 
Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders Open Letter
Category: Positioning
Year: 2023
More than 100 CEOs and Senior Executives from the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders shared an open letter to world leaders urging to back transformative policies at the upcoming COP28 Climate Summit. The Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders believes these policy changes can accelerate their decarbonization pathways, drive outsized impact and is ready to present these to policymakers at COP28 and beyond.
 
#3x Renewables
Category: Positioning
Year: 2023
WBCSD is mobilizing its members to support an Open letter – Global Renewables Alliance of the recent Global Renewable Alliance (GRA) created on the occasion of COP27 and which brings together global renewable energy alliances (GWEC, LDES, IGA, Global Solar Council, Green Hydrogen Organization, IHA) to support the call for world leaders and Parties to the Paris Agreement to commit to tripling renewable energy capacity to a minimum of 11,000 GW by 2030 at COP28.
 
The Fossil to Clean
Category: Positioning
Year: 2023
The We Mean Business Coalition (WMBC) and supporting partners (CDP, CERES, CLG Europe, The Climate Group and The B Team) prepared a policy letter and campaign calling for fossil fuel phase out “Fossil to Clean”. The letter and campaign aim to send a clear message that businesses are taking action to accelerate the deployment of clean technologies and reduce emissions – and that business can go even further with bold political leadership at COP28 and beyond. The message will help embolden global policymakers to enact policies for phasing in clean solutions and phasing out fossil fuels on a science-based timeline.
 
Business and Civil Society is all in for delivery
Category: Positioning
Year: 2022
It is crucial that governments take the action necessary to keep global temperature rise to 1.5°C. Over 200 business leaders and major civil society voices reaffirm their own commitment to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C and call on governments to urgently pursue delivery. EDP was one of the companies subscribing this statement.
 
Porto Climate Pact
Category: Commitment
Year: 2022
The Porto Climate Pact aims to awaken the action of citizens and organisations and create a large learning, sharing and mutual support community. EDP was one of the signatories and among the commitments is to establish and share concrete actions to reduce emissions.
 
Open letter to Ursula Von Der Leyen about REPowerEU Plan
Category: Positioning
Year: 2022
The Corporate Leaders Group (CLG) prepared an open letter supported by organisations including the Science Based Target Initiative, to be signed by different companies, addressed to the President of the European Commission (EC) and Heads of State and Governments of EU Members States before and relating to the publication of the REPowerEU Plan by the EC.  The letters states that given the devastating invasion of Ukraine, the EU should act rapidly to reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels and to address the increase in energy prices.
 
Call to keep RED for renewables and support ambitious targets for renewable hydrogen
Category: Positioning
Year: 2022
EDP joined the call to maintain the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII) only for RH2 (without the inclusion of low-carbon hydrogen) and to support ambitious goals connected to renewable hydrogen/RFNBO for industry and transport, as proposed by the European Commission (EC), which are currently under threat.
 
Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement
Category: Positioning
Year: 2021
Together with another 25 companies and 47 countries, including Portugal, EDP committed to accelerating the transition to renewable energy and abandoning the use of coal. The goal is to complete this process in the decade of the 2030s in the most developed countries and in the 2040s in other countries.
 
Open letter from High-Level Co-Chairs
Category: Positioning
Year: 2021
In the context of preparations for COP26, the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition prepared an open letter with the goal of setting a carbon price. The letter underlines the need to unblock financing and investment to boost a truly green economy and begin a change in policies to set a true price for carbon pollution.
 
UN Energy Compacts
Category: Commitment
Year: 2021, 2023
EDP was within the first companies to present the Energy Compact launched at the High-Level Dialogue on Energy convened by the UN Secretary-General in September 2021. In 2023, EDP’s Energy Compact was revised and updated: by committing to invest 25Bn€ in energy transition, to have zero contribution of coal to revenues by end of 2025, 100% Renewable Energy installed capacity by 2030 and be Net Zero by 2040.
 
Business open letter to G20 Leaders
Category: Positioning
Year: 2021
EDP signed an open letter to the G20 leaders calling for greater climate ambition at the G20 Summit 2021.   The letter underlines the need for greater political ambition from G20 leaders to include a set of public political recommendations to achieve the 1.5ºC target and accelerate business action.
 
Business letter SEC’s climate disclosure proposal
Category: Positioning
Year: 2021
EDP, in the role of investor, joined the CERES non-governmental organisation and hundreds of companies and non-profit organisations to call on the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to establish a minimum climate reporting standard.
 
Businesses & Investors call for ambitious U.S. NDC
Category: Positioning / Open Letter
Year: 2021
EDP signed the Business Letter of support to the Biden-Harris Administration, through the coalition of the We Mean Business and Ceres organisations. The letter was written by business leaders with significant presence in the United States of America (USA), asking for the adoption of a target of, at least, 50% reduction in emissions by 2030, a target that is credible, achievable and in line with the goal of achieving neutral emissions in the country by 2050.
 
Corporate Leaders Groups (CLG) CEO Letter EU 55% Ambition
Category: Positioning
Year: 2020
EDP signed the Corporate Leaders Group (CLG) CEO Letter, addressed to all European Heads of State and Governments, asking for greater ambition in setting European GHG emissions reduction targets to achieve by 2030 a reduction of at least 55% compared with 1990.
 
Re-Source Corporate Sourcing Green Recovery Letter
Category: Positioning
Year: 2020
RE-SOURCE, WBCSD, Wind Europe, RE100, CDP and WBCSD signed a letter responding to the European Union recovery plan, positioning renewable energy as a strategic vector for the economic recovery. This was signed by EDP and approximately 50 other companies in the sector.
 
Choose Renewable Hydrogen
Category: Positioning
Year: 2020
In a letter addressed to Vice-President Timmermans, ten companies in the energy sector, including EDP, defended the importance of green hydrogen as an efficient solution to support decarbonisation.
 
Uniting Business and Governments to Recover Better
Category: Positioning
Year: 2020
In a statement endorsed by EDP, organised by Pascal Canfin, Chair of the European Parliament Environment Committee, 180 decision makers from politics, business, trade unions, NGOs and Think Tanks joined in an alliance for the green economic recovery.
 
Green Alliance for a Green Recovery
Category: Positioning
Year: 2020
In a statement endorsed by EDP, organised by Pascal Canfin, Chair of the European Parliament Environment Committee, 180 decision makers from politics, business, trade unions, NGOs and Think Tanks joined in an alliance for the green economic recovery.
 
Call for an Ambitious EU Climate Law
Category: Positioning
Year: 2020
EDP and other leading European energy companies wrote a joint letter to Mr. Frans Timmermans MEP, executive Vice-President of the Green New Deal, calling for the approval of an ambitious climate law, which recognises the benefits of an energy system based on renewable energy.
 
Business Ambition for 1.5
Category: Commitment
Year: 2019
In this statement, EDP commits to define strategies to achieve an emissions reduction trajectory aligned with the goal of limiting the average temperature increase to 1.5ºC. This commitment arose in the context of a campaign prepared to support the COP25 negotiations, organised by the UN Global Compact together with the We Mean Business coalition and the SBTi Initiative.
 
Three Percent Club
Category: Commitment
Year: 2019
EDP joined The Three Percent Club, through which a set of countries and partners commit to contributing to the global target of energy efficiency gains of 3% per year.
 
Reporting following the TCFD
Category: Commitment
Year: 2018
Through a public commitment, in which it joined the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, EDP underlined its proactivity in the international Climate Agenda and its commitments to transparency of information relating to its decarbonisation strategy.
 
Science Based Targets Initiative
Category: Commitment
Year: 2017, 2020, 2021, 2023
EDP decarbonisation goals have been approved by SBTi (Science Based Targets initiative), for a Net Zero ambition in 2040. This recognition corresponds to the reduction of 90% of total greenhouse gas emissions throughout the value chain by 2040, with 2020 as the baseline.
 
Carbon Pricing Champions
Category: Commitment
Year: 2015
EDP accepted with the UN Global Compact various commitments aligned with the Business Leadership Criteria on Carbon Pricing, such as establishing an internal price for carbon, high enough to influence investment decisions, thereby contributing to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
 
Caring for Climate
Category: Commitment
Year: 2015
The Caring for Climate statement reinforces our public commitments to combating climate change, as well as: working on energy efficiency; reducing the carbon footprint of products, services and processes; better understanding climate change for the EDP businesses; and becoming more actively involved with national Governments, intergovernmental organisations and with society with the goal of developing policies and measures that provide a structure enabling companies to contribute to the construction of a low-carbon emissions economy, resilient to the climate.
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Electrical mobility
 
Call to the European Parliament and EU Governments to support the European Commission’s proposed phase-out of new diesel and petrol cars by 2035
Category: Letter
Year: 2022
The EV100 initiative of The Climate Group, prepared a letter from the industry calling Members of the European Parliament and the Governments of the Members States to adopt, in the context of the “Fit for 55” legislation, the progressive elimination across the EU of sales of new internal combustion passenger cars and vans (light commercial vehicles) (including hybrids) by 2035.
 
COP26 Declaration on accelerating the transition to 100% zero emissions cars and vans
Category: Commitment
Year: 2021
EDP, via EV100, signed a commitment to quickly accelerate the transition to zero emissions vehicles to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement. The goal is for all sales of new cars and vans to be zero emission globally by 2040, and by no later than 2035 in leading markets.
 
Corporate Multi-Stakeholders Coalition for e-mobility policies
Category: Positioning/Letter
Year: 2021
EDP, via ChargeUp Europe and Eurelectric, signed a letter with significant recommendations about electrification of fleets and the right to plug. It is crucial that the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive includes a “right to plug” for owners and tenants. The letter urges the European Commission to maintain this approach in the upcoming reviews of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure and Energy Performance of Buildings Directives, as well as the new Urban Mobility.
 
Fit for 55: Business fleet owners want and need ambitious electric vehicle legislation
Category: Positioning/Letter
Year: 2021
EDP is one of the signatories of this letter directed to various European Commissioners and other stakeholders, with the principal objective of informing and influencing the principal political decision-makers in the European Union (EU) on specific points in the legislative proposals that are to be prepared in the context of Fit for 55, relating to promoting the adoption of an ambitious legal and regulatory framework for electric vehicles.
 
Corporate Mobility Pact with Lisbon
Category: Commitment
Year: 2019
This Pact will be put into operation by implementing a set of Actions (commitments) to be chosen by the signatory companies. EDP has committed to 16 actions, from electric mobility to accessibility solutions.
 
ACT: Action Towards Climate Friendly Transport
Category: Commitment / Letter
Year: 2019
In this letter, EDP commits to cooperating with other signatories to increase access to a more decarbonised, accessible, safe, clean and reliable urban mobility.
 
TDA: Call for Zero Emissions Vehicles
Category: Positioning
Year: 2019
This initiative was developed in the context of the Community of Interest (Col) on Urban Freight with the purpose of accelerating the adoption of clean, zero emissions urban transport, simultaneously promoting air quality and contributing to achieving the targets in the Paris Agreement on climate change.
 
EV100 Campaign
Category: Commitment
Year: 2018
EV100 is part of a growing family of initiatives developed by The Climate Group and its partners with the objective of establishing a low-carbon business model for the XXI century. This campaign, therefore, unites different companies committed to leading the transition to electric mobility. One of the established objectives is the electrification of the fleet by 2030 (100% of vehicles up to 3.5t and 50% of the vehicles between 3.5t and 7.5t).
 
Joining the Transport Decarbonization Alliance (TDA)
Category: Commitment
Year: 2018
The TDA is an alliance bringing together countries, cities and companies around the common objective of accelerating the transformation of the transport sector into a decarbonised (net zero) system by 2050. Portugal is a member state. To join this alliance, EDP committed to:

- Making a public commitment to accelerating transport decarbonisation actions to make the sector “zero net emission” as soon as possible and in accordance with the 2050 target established in the Paris Agreement;

- Providing updated information about its objectives, actions, progress and experiences in transport decarbonisation;

- Promoting the directives and actions in the Global Macro-Roadmap: An Actionable Vision on Decarbonized and Resilient Transport developed by the Paris Process on Mobility and Climate (PPMC), as well as other tools provided by the TDA ecosystem;

- Actively contributing to promoting the objectives of the TDA.
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Governance and society
 
Thresholds in the EU Taxonomy Delegated Act
Category: Letter
Year: 2021
EDP was one of the signatories of a letter of support for the taxonomy limits based on climate and environmental sciences. The life-cycle intensity limit of 100g CO2e / kWh is a substantial contribution to climate mitigation.
 
UN Global Compact CFO Taskforce
Category: Commitment
Year: 2021
EDP is one of 58 companies to join the UN Global Compact CFO Taskforce, representing combined market capitalisation equivalent to more than USD 1.6 billion, committing to integrate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure their progress in implementing the CFO Principles for Integrated SDG Investments and Finance.
 
Open letter on Sustainability Reporting to the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union
Category: Letter
Year: 2021
EDP signed this statement that supports the possible creation of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) by the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation and calls on the European Commission to ensure constructive cooperation between the future European body for defining sustainability standards, the EFRAG and the ISSB to ensure global alignment of the sustainability reporting standards.
 
Stand up for Sustainable Investing & Corporate Climate Action
Category: Positioning
Year: 2023
Through We Mean Business Coalition, EDP was one of the companies to join the sign-on statement to send a collective message from companies and investors that climate change and other sustainability threats are material risks that should be considered in corporate and investor decision-making.
 
Stand up for sustainable investing & Corporate climate action
Category: Positioning
Year: 2023
EDP was one of the companies to join the sign-on statement to send a collective message from companies and investors that climate change and other sustainability threats are material risks that should be considered in corporate and investor decision-making. Our consideration of material environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors is not political or ideological. Incorporating these issues into financial decision-making represents good corporate governance, prudent risk management, and smart investment practice. We factor financially material considerations, including the impacts of climate change, into our standard investment and risk management decisions, in order to protect our operations and our investments.
 
Investors and Businesses call on policymakers to protect the freedom to invest responsibly
Category: Positioning
Year: 2023
Investors and Businesses Call on Policymakers to Protect the Freedom to Invest Responsibly, signatories, including EDP, reminded policymakers that they must be free to consider all material financial risks and opportunities to plan for the long-term and build a stronger, more resilient economy. Building profitable businesses and portfolios demands an analysis of all major financial risks—from inflation to climate change—and policies to limit that simply defy responsible investing and business practices.
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Other environmental positioning initiatives
 
Natural World Heritage sites
Category: Positioning
Year: 2016
EDP approved a public commitment not to build generating assets within areas classified as Natural Sites on the World Heritage List "EDP Group will not build any new generating assets in areas classified as Natural Sites on the World Heritage List, or in adjacent areas that may affect those sites."
 
Companies making the commitment:
A recent benchmark did not identify any other companies in the electricity sector making similar commitments. Companies that have made these commitments: Shell, Total, BP and 22 extractive companies belonging to the International Council on Mining and Metals8 8 Information accessed at: unesco & Wiley Online Library
 
No Net Loss
Category: Positioning
Year: 2018
A public commitment that demonstrates the aim to integrate good management practices for biodiversity loss arising from the Group's activities. This has been recognised by the DJSI Index giving a score of: 100/100.
 
 
Lisbon European Green City 2020 Pact
Category: Positioning
Year: 2020
EDP has joined the Lisbon European Green Capital 2020 pact, through the letter signed by the CEO which, in addition to the goals set in the Corporate Mobility Pact for the City of Lisbon, contributes directly to the 2030 goals set for the City, by acceptance of various commitments.
 
 
Act4Nature - Portugal
Category: Positioning
Year: 2020
EDP joined the "Act4Nature – Portugal, companies for sustainability" initiative (organised by BCSD), originating from the Act4Nature International initiative, which aims to mobilise and encourage companies to protect, promote and restore biodiversity. EDP belongs to the Steering Committee that governs this initiative.
 
 
Business4Nature call to action
Category: Positioning
Year: 2020
Business4Nature is an international coalition of large non-governmental organisations and Think Tanks, including the World Economic Forum, WBCSD, IUCN, WWF, WRI and the University of Cambridge. It aims to become a platform for sharing good business practice in this field and for influencing global policy. The next milestone in the campaign will be on 21 September, at the 75th UN General Assembly, where the companies will make a joint call for implementing actions and policies to reverse nature loss. The names of the companies signing up to the Call to Action and the total number will be announced at the event.
 
 
9 Principles for a Sustainable Ocean
Category: Positioning
Year: 2022
The UN Global Compact (UNGC), of which EDP has been a member since 2004, has developed the 9 Principles for a Sustainable Ocean that provide a framework for sustainable business practice across all industries and regions. These principles are based on and complement the 10 Principles of the UNGC, which EDP has already endorsed, regarding human rights, employment practices, the environment and anti-corruption. Together with the sectoral Practical Guidance for Implementation and the Ocean Stewardship 2030 report, the principles are a guide for corporations to make a positive contribution to the 2030 Agenda.

 
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