With the main focus on a fair energy transition, EDP will invest in initiatives to battle energy poverty, to promote the access to energy and energy efficiency and to implement solutions to access solar energy or electric mobility. An engagement in which EDP commits to invest more than 300 million euros until 2030 through a new global program of social investment, that will develop, boost, and coordinate the different initiatives in this field.

EDP proofs thus its commitment in accelerating decarbonization and achieving carbon neutrality but leaving no one behind. It is expected that these initiatives to promote a fair energy transition represent around the 45% of the total investment until 2030.

In parallel, EDP maintains access to culture as cornerstone of its social strategy. The group has a long investment career in this area, which is reflected in its role in actives such as MAAT, Tejo Power Station, and the Museum of the Portuguese Language, in Brazil; and believes in the relevance of culture for the development of societies.

All the social projects developed by the group will have, from now on, a new common identity – EDP Y.E.S. – Your Empower Society –, a global and transversal brand, that will enable to have an integrated narrative on EDP’s different social projects, highlighting its positive impact in society.

The investment, above 30 million euros per year, will be carried out through the foundations in Portugal, Spain, and Brazil in different business units.

“The climate emergency that we are living requires ambition, commitment and everyone’s collaboration to achieve a quicker and fairer energy transition. EDP reinforces its engagement with a new social program, more ambitious and with a bigger social impact in the communities, as this is a path in which no one can remain behind. We want to do it through initiatives to battle energy poverty and access to energy, while we promote education and culture. In EDP we are committed with this mission of generating a positive change, and I am confident that Y.E.S. will be an important compass to achieve these goals”, states Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade, chief executive of EDP.

Strategy with new global coordination

In 2022, among the envisaged actions is the Futuro Ativo Sines program, an example of projects to convert thermoelectric power plants into green energy production centers, with support to sustainable entrepreneurship initiatives, training in renewable energies or improvement of the houselholds’ energy conditions.

Another envisaged initiative is the promotion of solidary solar energy in different locations, through the foundations in Portugal, Spain (with the EDP Foundation) and Brazil (with the EDP Institute), that consists of offering photovoltaic panels for the energy production to non-governmental organizations, families, or groups in a vulnerable situation.

With the new strategy, EDP also assumes as one of its priorities the battle against energy poverty and the promotion of energy efficiency in the most needed communities. In Spain, several projects in this field have already been launched, and similar initiatives are expected for Portugal this year, with an overall investment of more than one million euros. Moreover, EDP has strengthened its partnership with the non-governmental organization Just a Change, with which it has been collaborating since 2018 in the battle against energy poverty.

The creation of a coordination area of social impact (SICO – Social Impact Coordination Office) that will have the mission of maximizing the social impact of EDP’s group, through the definition of the global strategy and the coordination of projects in the social field in different locations and activity areas, including volunteering actions and collaboration with other entities, reinforces this investment.

The A2E funds duplicate the funding of the projects in Africa

The engagement in projects that promote the access to green energies in developing countries is another commitment that is strengthened with the new social impact strategy of EDP. Created in 2018, A2E Funds (Access to Energy) launches this Tuesday, April 12, its fourth edition with double the funding: a million euros to support projects in five African countries: Mozambique, Nigeria, Malawi, Angola, and Rwanda.

Apart of increasing the overall amount, the amount to be granted to the selected candidacies will also increase, ranging from 50 000 to 150 000 euros. This significant change will enable to develop stronger projects with a greater impact in communities, both in terms of the number of supported organizations and the number of people benefited.

The registration stage starts now, through EDP’s web, and ends on May 16. The second stage of this edition will start between June and July, and it is expected that the results will be published by the end of this year. In the last three editions, A2E Funds has allocated 15 million euros to 20 projects, generating direct and indirect benefits for more than a million people in seven African countries.