The UN Global Compact CFO Task Force, a global committee of chief financial officers created to boost the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), has committed to invest together more than 400 billion euros to help to achieve these goals established by the United Nations. EDP, represented by Rui Teixeira, is the only Portuguese company of the group at this level, that will be launching this week a campaign in the UN Global Compact, to gather more voices every time in favor or sustainable financial policies.

This committee, started up in 2019, has now financial officers of around 60 big enterprises, that decided to redouble their efforts regarding the SDGs by committing these 420 billion euros of investment over the next five years. They are also engaging to dedicate around 50% of the figures related to the funding of sustainable policies, that is, through the “green” debt issuance. These engagements are seen as a starting point, as the most important challenge will be to ensure a complete integration of the goals established by the UN in the corporate finances.

In this context of the Global Compact of the United Nations of next week, the work team, that currently represents a global market capitalization of more than 1 400 million euros, will be launching a coordinated campaign with the goal to mobilize hundreds of companies so that they adopt the same type of strategies than in the previous years. Only this way it will be possible to generate a financial support that ensures the fulfillment of the SDGs.

The World Bank estimates that the business sector of the whole world invests almost 15 million euros in corporate investment per year, and CFO Task Force’s goal is to increase substantially the percentage assigned to sustainability projects. The UN has already estimated that the world will be needing to spend from 2 500 to 4 300 million euros each year to reach the SDGs by 2030. And this committee of fund managers believe that, if this campaign is successful, through an increasing mobilization the CFO and its companies for this common effort, it will be possible to gather the needed investment for areas such as sustaining infrastructure, renewable energies, water, health, food and agriculture and decent work.

“With its intervention in the CFO’s Work Teams of the Global Compact of the United Nations for the SDGs, EDP reaffirms its unmistakable and clear commitment with sustainability, and in particular, with decarbonization. The group was pioneer in the renewable energies’ investment and continues opening a path to a more sustainable future for everyone, in which the SDGs defined by the UN play a crucial role. It is within this context that our financial policy is also more aligned with the ambitious goals of energy transition that we have assumed”, highlights Rui Teixeira, CEO of EDP.

The intervention in the CFO Task Force is one of the multiple UN’s Global Compact initiatives in which EDP was invited to participate this week. During the following days, this global conference, sponsored by the UN, gathers heads of state, business leaders, experts and UN representants, in order to debate the climate emergency, the social inequalities, and the need to reconstruct a fairer and more equitable world, based in international cooperation. EDP, apart from this first intervention, also participates in the event presenting some of its more relevant projects and sustainability engagements and intervening in high level debates about climate action.