Iberdrola ends Bettercoal Membership

Bettercoal announces that Iberdrola will not be renewing its Bettercoal Membership in 2019

Iberdrola, the Spanish utility, announced it would not be renewing its Membership to the responsible coal supply chain initiative Bettercoal.

Iberdrola made the following statement: “We have to announce that Iberdrola, who has been member of Bettercoal since 2014 has taken the decision of terminating this membership with effect 31 December 2018. Iberdrola is engaged with Bettercoal principles, however the strategy of the company is the progressive closure of their coal generation assets, something that has been materializing since 2013 and has been intensified at the end of 2017 with the corporate decision of closure of their remaining coal plants and as a result of this, the presence of Iberdrola in the international coal market is now reduced and will not be for a long time. Given this, Iberdrola considers that it cannot be involved in Bettercoal´s works and decisions that could mean of some impact in the coal market in which future Iberdrola will not be involved”.

Anne-Claire Howard, Executive Director of Bettercoal said: “Iberdrola has been a member of Bettercoal since 2014 alongside other major utilities. And whilst we are sad to see one of our Members leave, we also recognise that this is a trend that will continue to be followed as Europe reduces its coal fired power plant footprint in line with the Paris Agreements. We are saddened that Iberdrola did not chose to remain a member but we have been extremely happy to work alongside them.”